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THE  LABOR  PROBLEM  AND  THE 

SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

IN  FRANCE 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

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TORONTO 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM  AND  THE 

SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

IN  FRANCE 

A  Study  in  the  History  of  Social  Politics 


BY 
PARKER  THOMAS  MOON 

Instructor  in  History  in  Columbia  University 


Jfteto  gorfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1921 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,    1921, 
BY  THE   MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

Set  up  and  printed.     Published  May,  1921. 


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PREFACE 

NOT  until  quite  recently,  in  the  United  States,  has  anything 
like  general  public  attention  been  directed  to  one  of  the  most 
powerful  and  interesting  of  contemporary  movements  toward 
the  solution  of  the  insistent  problem  of  labor  unrest.  There 
is  a  real  need  for  an  impartial  historical  study  of  this  movement 
and  a  critical  analysis  of  the  forces  which  lie  behind  it.  Such 
a  need  the  present  narrative  does  not  pretend  to  satisfy  com- 
pletely; but  it  is  hoped  that  even  a  preliminary  survey,  such 
as  this,  will  be  of  interest  to  those  who  concern  themselves  with 
the  grave  social  and  economic  problems  now  confronting  po- 
litical democracy. 

The  movement  in  question, —  generally  known  as  the  Social 
Catholic  movement, —  has  expanded  so  rapidly  in  the  last 
few  decades  that  it  may  now  be  regarded  as  a  force  compar- 
able in  magnitude  and  in  power  to  international  Socialism,  or 
to  Syndicalism,  or  to  the  cooperative  movement.  On  the  eve 
of  the  Great  War,  Social  Catholicism  was  represented  by  or- 
ganizations in  every  civilized  country  where  there  was  any 
considerable  Catholic  population.  Its  adherents  were  numbered 
by  tens  of  millions ;  a  host  of  journals,  reviews,  year-books, 
economic  treatises,  manuals,  and  millions  of  tracts  were  preach- 
ing its  doctrines ;  it  had  apologists  in  the  universities  and  rep- 
resentatives in  the  legislatures  of  many  European  and  several 
American  states ;  its  propaganda  was  growing  by  leaps  and 
bounds.  It  had  already  taken  its  place  as  second  or  third  among 
the  great  international  movements  for  social  reform.  More- 
over, thanks  to  authoritative  endorsements  by  papal  encyclicals, 
and  thanks  to  the  energetic  efforts  of  its  patrons  in  the  hier- 
archy, it  has  resumed  its  progress  since  the  conclusion  of  peace 
and  bids  fair  to  command  the  substantial  support  of  the  great 
body  of  Catholic  Christians  throughout  the  world. 


Vlll 


PREFACE 


The  program  of  reforms  advocated  by  the  leaders  of  this 
movement  presents  an  elaborate  and  far-reaching  scheme  of 
economic  reconstruction.  One  might  call  it  a  rival  of  the  other 
"  Proposed  Roads  to  Freedom "  described  by  Mr.  Bertrand 
Russell.  The  program  is  all  the  more  significant  because 
several  of  its  basic  principles,  which  once  appeared  somewhat 
visionary,  are  gaining  widespread  popularity  at  the  present 
time.  For  instance,  the  idea  that  a  modernized  guild  system, 
with  industrial  democracy,  was  the  true  alternative  to  State 
Socialism,  had  little  vogue  a  generation  ago,  except  among 
Social  Catholics,  whereas  today  it  is  making  remarkable  head- 
way among  British  labor  leaders,  in  the  form  of  "  Guildism  " 
or  "  Guild  Socialism."  The  conservative  wing  of  the  British 
Guild  Socialist  movement,  one  might  add,  is  Social  Catholic. 
The  scheme  of  Joint  Standing  Industrial  Councils  put  forward 
by  the  Whitley  Committee x  and  incorporated  in  the  British 
Goverment's  reconstruction  policy  provides  another  indication 
of  the  same  trend  of  thought,  and  the  Whitley  plan  bears  an 
astonishing  resemblance  to  the  scheme  of  industrial  organiza- 
tion formulated  many  years  previously  by  French  Social  Cath- 
olics. Again,  the  Social  Catholics  have  insisted,  from  the  be- 
ginning, that  labor  must  not  be  regarded  as  a  commodity,  the 
price  of  which  could  be  determined  by  the  law  of  supply  and 
demand.  This  principle  is  now  officially  recognized  by  a  clause 
in  the  Treaty  of  Versailles.  International  labor  legislation 
is  a  third  principle  of  which  the  Social  Catholics  were  among 
the  earliest  and  most  determined  advocates.  Yet  another  of  the 
reforms  of  which  Social  Catholics,  particularly  in  France,  have 
long  been  supporters,  is  the  establishment  of  an  industrial, 
or,  rather,  a  vocational  senate  as  a  complement  to  the  existing 
parliament  based  on  purely  numerical  or  geographical  rep- 
resentation. Under  the  name  of  "  functional  representation," 
this  idea  is  coming  to  be  more  and  more  widely  debated. 

A  genuine  practical  interest  attaches  to  the  question  whether 
the  Social  Catholic  movement  is  inherently  antagonistic  to 
other  schools  of  social  reform,  or  disposed  to  cooperate  with 
them.  In  general,  the  Social  Catholics  have  been  opposed  to 


PREFACE  ix 

State  Socialism,  Bolshevism,  and  the  anarchistic  wing  of  Syn- 
dicalism. On  the  other  hand,  in  promoting  trade-unionism,  in 
legislating  against  child  labor,  in  protecting  women  from  in- 
jurious industrial  exploitation,  in  establishing  social  insurance, 
and  in  similar  matters,  there  has  been  much  cooperation  be- 
tween Social  Catholics  and  other  friends  of  labor  legislation. 

In  the  United  States,  there  has  been  less  of  such  cooperation 
than  in  Europe,  principally  because  the  Social  Catholic  move- 
ment was  more  backward  in  the  New  World.  Very  striking, 
however,  is  the  manifesto  on  social  reconstruction  recently  is- 
sued by  four  American  bishops,  in  the  name  of  the  National 
Catholic  War  Council,  championing  in  principle  a  minimum 
wage  law;  social  insurance  against  sickness,  invalidity,  unem- 
ployment, and  old  age ;  shop  committees  and  labor  participation 
in  industrial  management;  cooperative  selling  and  marketing; 
cooperation  in  production ;  regulation  of  public  service  monop- 
olies ;  heavy  taxation  of  incomes,  excess  profits,  and  inheri- 
ances.  While  this  "  Bishops'  Program  "  contains  several  dis- 
tinctive features,  it  nevertheless  explicitly  approves  many  of 
the  practical  reform  measures  urged  by  American  liberals,  by 
labor  leaders,  and  by  Socialists. 

In  France,  Social  Catholics  helped  to  enact  the  law  of  1884, 
the  charter  of  French  trade-unionism,  and  have  rivalled  the 
Socialists  in  urging  factory  and  labor  legislation,  working- 
men's  insurance,  and  other  reforms.  In  Germany,  the  early 
establishment  of  workingmen's  compensation  and  of  social  in- 
surance was  in  no  small  part  due  to  the  influence  of  the  Center 
or  Catholic  Party.  In  Switzerland,  the  Social  Catholic  leader, 
Decurtins,  cooperated  with  Radicals  and  moderate  Socialists  to 
secure  workingmen's  compensation,  to  fix  a  maximum  working 
day,  to  pass  factory  legislation,  and  to  establish  a  Secretariat 
of  Labor ;  he  also  obtained  the  support  of  the  Radicals,  and  ul- 
timately the  approval  of  the  Swiss  Federal  Council,  for  his 
proposal  that  Switzerland  convoke  the  first  international  con- 
ference on  labor  legislation.  In  England,  Cardinal  Manning 
became  so  conspicuous  a  champion  of  workingmen's  demands 
that  his  portrait  was  borne  qn  a  banner  in  the  great  eight-hour- 


x  PREFACE 

day  demonstration  of  May  4,  1890.  Instances  need  not  be  mul- 
tiplied. No  one  familiar  with  the  recent  history  of  France, 
Italy,  Belgium,  Germany,  Austria,  Switzerland,  or  Spain  can 
be  ignorant  of  the  active  participation  of  Social  Catholics  in 
Continental  social  politics. 

In  the  light  of  the  facts  just  stated,  it  is  clear  that  this  move- 
ment is  important  enough  to  repay  a  more  thorough  analysis 
than  it  has  yet  received  at  the  hands  of  Anglo-American  his- 
torians, economists,  and  students  of  public  policy.  Among 
European  publicists  and  scholars,  Social  Catholicism  has  been 
much  debated.  Unfortunately,  most  of  the  voluminous  litera- 
ture on  the  subject  has  been  controversial  or  apologetic,  and 
no  adequate  general  history  of  the  Social  Catholic  movement 
has  yet  been  published,  in  any  language.  Professor  Nitti's 
history  of  Catholic  Socialism,  written  in  the  Italian  language, 
thirty  years  ago  (1890),  and  subsequently  translated  into  Eng- 
lish, is  admirable,  so  far  as  it  goes,  but  it  covers  only  the  in- 
fancy of  the  movement.  Turmann,  de  Clercq,  Calippe,  Goyau, 
Eble,  and  Monicat, —  to  mention  only  a  few, —  have  written 
scholarly  and  readable  books  on  various  special  aspects  of  Social 
Catholicism;  their  works,  however,  have  not  been  translated, 
nor  do  they  provide  the  general  and  impartial  account  that  the 
ordinary  reader  would  desire.  There  remains,  therefore,  an  at- 
tractive field,  still  open,  for  historical  investigation. 

To  compress  the  whole  history  of  the  international  Social 
Catholic  movement  within  the  two  covers  of  the  present  mono- 
graph would  be  obviously  impossible.  It  has  appeared  wise 
to  focus  attention  principally  upon  the  development  of  the 
movement  in  a  single  country.  France  is  selected,  because  the 
Social  Catholic  program  has  there  been  elaborated  in  great 
detail  and  formally  incorporated  in  the  platform  of  a  political 
party,  the  Action  Liberale  Populaire.  Consequently,  Social 
Catholicism  has  played  a  most  interesting  role  in  French  politics. 

Unfamiliar  though  its  name  may  appear  to  the  eyes  of  Amer- 
ican readers,  the  Action  Liberale  Populaire  or,  as  we  may  call 
it,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  is  quite  as  interesting,  in  point 
of  political  theory  and  social  doctrine,  as  the  Socialist  and 


PREFACE 


Syndicalist  movements  in  France.  Nor  is  it  insignificant  in 
numerical  strength.  Before  the  war,  Revolutionary  Syndical- 
ism in  France  could  boast,  at  the  maximum,  only  two  or  three 
hundred  thousands  of  adherents,  since  the  national  Syndical- 
ist organization,  the  Confederation  Generate  du  Travail,  em- 
braced at  most  600,000  members,  many  of  whom  were  not 
Syndicalists  at  all,  but  merely  trade-unionists  or  Socialists.2 
The  Popular  Liberal  Party  at  that  time  had  a  dues-paying 
membership  of  over  250,000  and  a  voting  strength  of  three- 
quarters  of  a  million.  The  Unified  Socialist  Party  had  only 
one  fourth  as  many  dues-paying  members,  although  its  dues 
were  eighty  per  cent  smaller  than  those  of  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party.8  From  the  war  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  has  emerged 
unquestionably  more  powerful  than  the  Unified  Socialist  Party, 
both  in  parliamentary  representation  and  in  membership.  In 
the  elections  of  November,  1919,  the  Unified  Socialists  obtained 
only  68  seats  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  whilst  the  Liberals 
won  a  hundred.4 

As  an  important  political  organization  pledged  to  the  social 
program  of  the  French  Social  Catholic  movement,  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  will  necessarily  figure  largely  in  the  present 
narrative.  The  party,  however,  is  not  the  movement;  it  is 
only  a  part,  and  not  even  the  most  important  part,  of  the  move- 
ment. In  all  probability,  the  Social  Catholic  vote,  like  the 
general  Catholic  vote,  will  remain  scattered,  and  the  influence 
of  French  Social  Catholicism  will  be  discernible  not  so  much 
in  the  growth  of  a  single  party  as  in  the  penetration  of  several 
political  parties  by  Social  Catholic  ideas.  For  this  reason,  the 
author  has  endeavored  to  sketch  not  only  the  activities  of  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party,  but  also  the  development  of  the  Social 
Catholic  movement  prior  to  the  formation  of  the  party,  and 
the  work  of  various  non-political  organizations. 

In  this  attempt  to  reconstruct  from  scattered  and  all  too 
fugitive  sources  the  story  of  a  comparatively  recent  political 
and  social  movement, —  to  analyze  the  factors  that  gave  birth 
to  the  movement  and  then  to  portray  the  movement  as  a  living 
force  in  practical  politics, —  the  difficulties  were  so  formidable 


Xll 


PREFACE 


that  the  author  more  than  once  lost  courage  and  was  held  to 
the  task  only  by  a  lively  consciousness  of  the  inherently  inter- 
esting and  significant  character  of  the  subject.  Finality  is  not 
claimed  for  the  narrative  as  it  is  given  here.  It  will  betray 
some  of  the  errors  of  judgment  that  are  well-nigh  inevitable 
in  any  endeavor  to  bring  a  puzzling  array  of  facts  into  a  com- 
prehensive synthesis  for  the  first  time;  it  is  certainly  and  un- 
avoidably incomplete.  If  it  provides  an  objective  and  sub- 
stantially accurate  picture  of  the  movement,  intelligible  to  the 
general  reader  as  well  as  to  the  specialist,  the  author  will  con- 
sider his  purpose  achieved. 

For  courteous  replies  to  inquiries  which  often  must  have 
been  troublesome  and  for  assistance  in  collecting  the  materials 
used  in  the  preparation  of  this  study,  the  author  is  grateful  to 
several  officers  of  the  Action  Liberale  Populaire  of  Paris,  and 
particularly  to  M.  Abel  Tocquet.  Thanks  are  also  due  to  M. 
Arthur  Saint-Pierre,  of  Montreal,  for  advice  which  facilitated 
the  preliminary  stages  of  research.  The  author  is  deeply  in- 
debted to  Professors  Carlton  J.  H.  Hayes  and  Charles  Downer 
Hazen  of  Columbia  University  for  reading  and  criticizing  the 
manuscript.  From  Professor  Hayes,  who  has  done  so  much 
to  stimulate  the  scientific  study  of  social  history  and  social 
politics,  the  author  received  not  only  inspiration  and  many  a 
helpful  suggestion  for  the  improvement  of  this  book  in  style 
or  in  content,  but  also  patient  assistance  in  the  wearisome  task 
of  revising  the  proofs. 

PARKER  THOMAS  MOON. 

Columbia  University, 

February  14,  1921. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    A  DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING  .     .  i 

General  Background i 

The  Labor  Problem  in  France :  Facts  and  Theories. 

1815-1848       6 

French  Pioneers  of  Social  Catholicism     ....  13 

Conservative  Traditions  and  Democratic  Tendencies  28 

II.     MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  :  1848-1870      ...  38 

Political  Reaction 38 

An  Advocate  of  Social  Legislation 42 

Social  Reaction:  Causes 52 

Le  Play  and  Perin 58 

Royalism  and  Social  Catholicism 68 

By  Way  of  Summary 74 

III.  POPULARIZATION  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM  .     77 

The  Commune  and  the  Reaction 77 

Count  Albert  de  Mun  and  the  Catholic  iWorking- 

men's  Clubs 80 

The  Social  Aspect  of  Monarchist  Politics  ...  87 
De  Mun's  Advocacy  of  Social  Legislation  .  .  .  101 
A  Manufacturer's  Experiment 113 

IV.  ENCOURAGEMENT  FROM  ABROAD 121 

V.    VANGUARD  AND  STRAGGLERS 140 

VI.     EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION 157 

"  On  the  Condition  of  the  Working  Classes  "  .  .  157 
The  Political  Intervention  of  Leo  XIII :  The  Rallie- 

ment 166 

Immediate  Effect  of  the  Encyclicals 172 

VII.    "THE  NEW  SPIRIT":  1893-1899 194 

VIII.    REPUBLICAN  DEFENSE  AND  Piou's  DILEMMA     .     .     .  216 

xlii 


xiv  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

IX.    THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY 223 

The  Product  of  a  Century  of  Evolution  ....  223 

Organization  of  the  Party 227 

Development  of  a  Program 237 

Social  Catholic  Influence  on  the  Program     .      .      .  246 
Summary  of  the  Party's  Program  of  Social  Recon- 
struction     256 

Constitutional  Reforms  and  Political  Theories  .     .  261 

"  Liberalism  "  and  Religion 279 

Social  Legislation  and  the  Religious  Question  .     .  285 

Patriotism 295 

Some  Criticisms  of  the  Party 299 

X.     SURVEY    OF    THE    CONTEMPORARY    SOCIAL    CATHOLIC 

MOVEMENT  IN  FRANCE 315 

General  Survey 315 

The  Action  Populaire  and  Its  Publications  .      .      .  321 

The  Doctrines  of  the  Action  Populaire   ....  330 

The  Semaines  Sociales 339 

The  Young  Men's  Catholic  Association  ....  347 

XI.     DISSIDENT  GROUPS 353 

The  "  Social  Reform "  School 354 

A  Monarchist  Group:  L'Action  Franchise     .      .      .  361 

The  "  Christian  Democrats  " 365 

The  Sillon  and  the  Young  Republic 375 

XII.     CONCLUSION 383 

Summary 383 

Opinions  of  the  Social  Catholic  Movement  .      .      .  386 
Guildism,  Guild  Socialism,  and  the  Social  Catholic 
Program 390 

APPENDIX  :  EXPLANATORY  AND  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES  400 
INDEX 469 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM  AND  THE  SOCIAL 
CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT  IN  FRANCE 

CHAPTER  I 

A  DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE 
MAKING 

GENERAL  BACKGROUND 

SOCIAL  CATHOLICISM,  like  most  important  social  movements 
of  the  present  time,  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  an  attempt 
to  find  a  solution  of  the  problems  created  by  the  two  greatest 
historical  events  of  the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  centuries, 
namely,  the  Industrial  Revolution  and  the  Political  Revolution. 

The  essential  feature  of  the  Industrial  Revolution  was  the 
modernization  of  industry  by  the  invention  and  introduction 
of  power-driven  machinery  owned  by  capitalists,  in  place  of 
hand  tools  owned  by  workingmen.  Its  effect  was  to  multiply 
enormously  the  power  of  man  to  produce  all  the  things  which 
go  to  make  up  material  wealth  —  from  hosiery  to  houses,  from 
pocket-knives  to  pianolas  —  and  at  the  same  time  to  place  the 
working  classes  temporarily  at  the  mercy  of  the  factory  and 
mine  owners.  Consequently  while  industrial  capitalists  were 
accumulating  great  fortunes,  the  condition  of  the  working 
classes  seemed  to  be  going  from  bad  to  worse.  Starvation 
wages  were  paid ;  employment  was  uncertain ;  women  and  chil- 
dren were  toiling  twelve  and  fourteen  hours  a  day  in  the  new 
factories,  under  unhealthful  and  often  immoral  conditions; 
family  life  among  the  workers  of  mill  and  mine  seemed  to  be 
doomed  to  destruction ;  drunkenness  and  disease  were  under- 
mining the  stamina  of  the  race.  Under  such  circumstances,  it 
was  inevitable  that  the  working  classes  should  be  discontented, 

l 


2  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

even  rebellious,  and  should  show  their  unrest  by  participating 
in  riots,  strikes,  labor  agitations,  socialistic  propaganda.  In 
short,  the  Industrial  Revolution  gave  birth  to  the  labor  problem 
of  the  present  age. 

The  Political  Revolution, —  by  which  is  meant  the  series  of 
revolutions  and  reforms  which,  since  the  eighteenth  century, 
have  almost  universally  replaced  divine-right  monarchies  and 
feudal  aristocracies  by  democratic  governments, —  gave  the 
labor  problem  political  significance.  A  democratic  government 
cannot  be  indifferent  to  the  economic  welfare  of  the  working- 
man. 

For  a  time,  the  wealthier  and  better  educated  classes,  con- 
trolling the  governments  of  Europe,  denied  the  necessity  or 
even  the  wisdom  of  state-intervention  in  labor  matters ;  accord- 
ing to  the  principles  of  the  "  Liberal "  or  "  laissez-faire  "  system 
of  political  economy,  prevalent  in  the  second  and  third  quarters 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  economic  liberty  or  free  business 
competition  was  not  to  be  tampered  with  by  meddlesome  states- 
men. This  principle  of  non-intervention,  however,  soon  broke 
down  in  practice.  For  its  failure,  four  reasons  may  be  found. 

First,  the  evils  arising  from  the  Industrial  Revolution  were 
so  intolerable  that  philanthropic  and  humanitarian  consider- 
ations demanded  corrective  legislation  to  abolish  child  labor  in 
factories  and  mines,  to  regulate  the  conditions  of  employment 
of  women,  to  ensure  sanitary  working  conditions,  to  relieve 
extreme  poverty. 

In  the  second  place,  the  workingmen,  when  they  obtained  the 
right  to  vote,  were  inclined  to  regard  the  ballot  as  a  weapon 
to  be  used  in  defense  of  their  own  economic  interests,  and 
consequently  bourgeois  politicians  found  it  necessary,  in  bid- 
ding for  workingmen's  suffrages,  to  promise  satisfaction  of 
workingmen's  grievances.  This  factor  operated  with  fluctuat- 
ing force,  according  as  questions  of  national  defense,  foreign 
policy,  relations  between  church  and  state,  and  other  political 
issues  diverted  attention  from  labor  problems,  but  it  was  gen- 
erally of  considerable  significance. 

A  third,  and  a  most  important  reason  for  the  growing  dis- 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING         3 

regard  of  the  principle  of  non-intervention,  was  the  rise  of 
trade-unionism.  Even  before  they  were  able  to  exert  any  ap- 
preciable direct  influence  in  politics,  the  workingmen  in  various 
trades  discovered  that  they  could  materially  improve  their  lot 
by  the  practise  of  collective  bargaining,  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  trade  unions.  Notwithstanding  early  failures, 
due  to  the  inexperience  and  incapability  of  their  leaders,  and 
despite  repressive  laws,  the  trade  unions  gained  in  numbers 
and  strength  so  rapidly  that  towards  the  end  of  the  nineteenth 
century  they  constituted,  in  industry  and  in  politics,  a  force  of 
the  first  importance.  The  influence  of  the  trade-union  move- 
ment in  demonstrating  the  capacity  of  the  working  classes  for 
democratic  self-organization,  in  promoting  a  spirit  of  labor 
solidarity,  and  in  breaking  down  the  theory  of  "  economic 
liberty,"  has  often  been  ignored,  but  is  coming  to  be  appre- 
ciated. Trade-unionism  provided  the  solid  foundation  of  ex- 
isting reality  on  which  schemes  of  social  reform  could  be  based. 
This  is  true  not  only  of  far-reaching  plans  of  social  reconstruc- 
tion, such  as  Syndicalism,  Social  Catholicism,  or  the  British 
Labor  Party  program,  but  also  of  specific  measures  of  labor 
legislation,  such  as  legal  limitation  of  the  hours  of  labor,  regu- 
lation of  factory  conditions,  standardization  of  wages.  When, 
by  persuasion,  by  strike,  or  by  threat  of  strike,  trade  unions 
had  secured  an  increase  of  wages,  a  reduction  of  the  hours  of 
labor,  or  an  improvement  of  labor  conditions,  in  a  number  of 
the  better  organized  industries,  the  enactment  of  a  law  ratify- 
ing such  an  achievement  presented  no  such  difficulty  as  the 
enactment  of  a  law  embodying  some  novel  and  untried  prin- 
ciple. A  fait  accompli,  in  social  politics  no  less  than  in  diplo- 
macy, is  a  most  convincing  argument.  Moreover,  where  em- 
ployers in  some  trades  had  been  forced  by  the  labor  unions 
to  grant  certain  concessions,  these  employers  sometimes  be- 
came advocates  of  legislation  extending  such  concessions  to 
other  branches  of  industry.5  In  short  the  trade-union  move- 
ment made  government  intervention  in  labor  matters  almost  in- 
evitable, and  profoundly  modified  the  attitude  of  legislators, 
economists,  and  reformers  toward  social  legislation. 


4  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

In  the  third  place,  during1  the  second  half  of  the  century, 
Socialism  became  a  powerful  political  movement  and  revo- 
lutionary Syndicalism  appeared  as  a  menace  to  capitalism. 
The  aim  of  Socialism  was  to  use  the  voting  strength  of  the 
poorer  classes  to  gain  control  of  democratic  governments  and 
then  to  substitute  for  capitalism  collective  ownership  of  the 
means  of  production  and  distribution.  The  Syndicalists  pro- 
posed a  different  method  of  action,  viz.,  the  overthrow  of  the 
capitalistic  organization  of  industry  by  means  of  "  direct  ac- 
tion "  on  the  part  of  the  workingmen,  that  is  by  means  of 
general  strikes.  Both  Socialism  and  Syndicalism  were  revo- 
lutionary in  purpose;  the  success  of  either  would  mean  the 
destruction  of  private  capitalism. 

As  the  Socialist  and  Syndicalist  movements  gained  head- 
way, the  defenders  of  the  capitalistic  organization  of  industry 
were  compelled  to  make  concession  after  concession  to  the  de- 
mands of  labor,  in  the  hope  of  convincing  the  workman  that 
his  situation  could  be  improved  immediately  and  progressively 
without  waiting  for  or  incurring  the  risks  of  a  social  revolu- 
tion. As  they  were  now  bidding  against  Socialists  and  Syn- 
dicalists, as  well  as  against  each  other,  the  bourgeois  parties 
became  more  and  more  generous  in  their  offers ;  the  more 
radical  among  them  were  willing  to  grant  old  age  pensions, 
national  insurance,  government  employment  agencies,  housing 
reforms,  recognition  of  trade  unions,  even  the  minimum  wage 
and  the  establishment  of  a  maximum  limit  for  the  number  of 
hours  in  the  working  day.  Conservatives,  liberals,  and  rad- 
icals, all  felt  the  compelling  influence  of  the  new  situation. 
The  foregoing  statement  is  not  meant  to  imply  that  vote-get- 
ting was  the  only  motive  behind  the  social  reforms  of  liberal, 
radical,  and  conservative  politicians,  but  merely  that  the  sin- 
cere humanitarian  motives  of  such  politicians  were  strongly 
reinforced  by  the  political  necessity,  ever  present  in  democratic 
countries,  of  offering  the  masses  at  least  a  part  of  what  the 
masses  demanded. 

The  four  reasons  which  have  just  been  stated  explain  the 
breakdown  of  the  theory  that  the  state  should  not  intervene 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING          5 

in  labor  questions.  Converting  this  statement  from  the  negative 
to  the  positive,  the  above  reasons  show  why  the  political  de- 
mocracies established  by  the  Political  Revolution  were  bound 
to  concern  themselves  with  the  labor  unrest  arising  from  the 
Industrial  Revolution.  This  application  of  political  democracy 
to  the  task  of  creating  a  more  harmonious  and  perhaps  a  more 
democratic  organization  of  labor,  industry,  and  society  has 
been  happily  designated  "  social  politics  " ; 6  it  is  the  most  vital 
political  problem  of  the  present  age. 

In  relation  to  this  general  background,  the  significance  of 
the  Social  Catholic  movement  may  be  more  easily  perceived. 
Like  Socialism  and  Syndicalism,  Social  Catholicism  offers  a 
program  for  the  solution  of  the  labor  problem  created  by  the 
Industrial  Revolution.  Like  the  more  conservative  programs 
of  social  reform,  Social  Catholicism  offers  an  alternative  to 
social  revolution,  and  makes  a  counter-bid  for  popular  support 
against  Socialism.  Social  Catholicism,  however,  cannot  be  re- 
garded as  merely  a  counter-bid,  or  as  a  program  of  concessions. 
It  is  a  separate  social  philosophy,  based  on  the  application  of 
long-recognized  ethical  principles  to  modern  problems ;  more- 
over, it  proposes  to  solve  the  labor  problem  by  a  bold  organic 
reorganization  of  the  existing  industrial  system  and  of  exist- 
ing democratic  institutions,  rather  than  by  cautious  com- 
promises and  palliatives. 

The  foregoing  generalizations  afford  a  standpoint  from 
which  .to  view  the  development  of  the  French  Social  Catholic 
movement  in  its  proper  perspective.  In  the  earliest  stage  of 
that  development,  the  important  features  are,  first,  the  growth 
of  a  conviction  that  social  reform  was  necessary  to  remedy 
the  evils  arising  from  the  Industrial  Revolution,  and,  second, 
the  acceptance  of  democracy  as  the  political  instrument  and 
condition  of  such  social  reform.  In  the  present  chapter,  an 
attempt  will  be  made  to  analyze  these  two  features;  then,  in 
subsequent  chapters,  we  may  study  the  elaboration  of  the  so- 
cial program,  and  its  influence  on  democratic  politics. 


0  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

THE  LABOR  PROBLEM  IN  FRANCE:     FACTS  AND  THEORIES 

1815-1848 

Social  Catholicism  as  'an  organized  movement  did  not  ap- 
pear in  France  until  after  1870,  but  to  discover  the  impulses 
and  ideas  which  produced  the  movement,  we  must  turn  back 
to  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  formative  period 
of  the  Social  Catholic  program.  The  peculiarities  of  the  move- 
ment, the  obstacles  and  the  tendencies  against  which  it  had 
to  struggle,  and  the  nature  of  the  motive  forces  sustaining  it, 
can  be  explained  only  by  reference  to  the  circumstances  under 
which  its  basic  ideas  had  their  inception. 

During  the  period  from  1815  to  1870  the  Industrial  Revo- 
lution, already  started,  made  rapid  progress  in  France.7  The 
number  of  steam-engines  affords  as  good  an  index  as  any  of 
the  progress  of  the  new  industry.  In  1820  there  were  ap- 
proximately 200  steam-engines  in  France;  in  1830,  approxi- 
mately 600;  in  1840,  approximately  2,900;  in  1850,  approx- 
imately 6,800;  in  1860,  approximately  i8,7oo.8  It  was  pre- 
eminently in  the  textile,  mineral,  and  sugar  industries,  and  in 
transportation,  that  the  revolution  made  itself  felt;  accord- 
ing to  an  incomplete  estimate  made  in  the  years  1840-1845, 
there  were  243  steam-engines  in  cotton  spinning  mills,  143  in 
silk  spinning  and  weaving  mills,  135  in  wool  spinning  mills, 
218  in  coal  mines,  209  in  sugar  factories.9  The  first  French 
railway  was  opened  to  traffic  in  1828  (with  horse-traction)  ; 
the  first  French  steam  locomotive  was  set  in  motion  in  1832; 
but  by  1850  there  were  3,002  kilometers  of  railway  under  ex- 
ploitation, and  by  1870  there  were  I7,4O5.10  The  enormous 
expansion  of  the  textile  industry  may  be  gauged  by  the  increase 
in  the  number  of  spindles  for  flax  and  hemp  spinning  from 
57,000  in  1840  to  752,000  in  1865 ;  for  cotton,  from  2,610,000 
in  1834  to  6,800,000  in  I867.11  The  production  of  coal  in- 
creased from  8,816,000  metric  quintals  in  1815  to  44,335,670 
in  1850,  and  83,036,818  in  i86o.12  Only  1,125,000  metric 
quintals  of  cast  iron  were  produced  in  1819,  as  compared  with 
8,983-533  in  i860.13 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING         7 

The  rise  of  the  new  industry  was  paralleled  by  the  develop- 
ment of  the  labor  problem  in  a  new  form.  The  working- 
people  employed  in  factories  and  mines  represented,  numer- 
ically, only  a  minority  of  the  industrial  population,  but  it  was 
a  minority  that  rapidly  grew  in  numbers,  in  discontent,  in  class- 
conscious  unrest.  According  to  the  census  of  1872  there  were 
153,932  men  and  10,887  women  working  in  mines  and  quarries, 
and  593,964  men  and  418,042  women  in  factories,  shops  and 
mills.  If  we  add  families  of  these  workers,  we  arrive  at 
2,412,079  as  the  total  industrial  proletariat  dependent  upon  mine 
and  factory,  as  compared  with  3,062,903  dependent  upon  the 
smaller  industries. 

Conditions  among  the  workers  of  mine  and  factory  were  ap- 
palling. In  the  textile  mills  of  Alsace  in  1828,  the  normal 
working  day  was  fourteen  or  fifteen  hours,  according  to  the 
statement  made  by  one  of  the  mill  owners.14  At  Mulhouse, 
work  began  generally  at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  lasted 
until  eight  or  nine  in  the  evening,  often  even  later.  In  some 
factories  the  working  day  lasted  seventeen  hours,  with  a  half 
hour  for  lunch  and  an  hour  for  dinner.15  At  Lille,  the  work- 
ing-day in  the  cotton  mills  was  sometimes  sixteen  or  seven- 
teen hours ;  four-year-old  children  were  found  working  in  the 
shops ;  and  the  average  wage  was  forty  cents  (two  francs) 
a  day  for  an  adult  male  worker,  twenty  cents  (one  franc)  for 
a  woman,  nine  cents  (forty-five  centimes)  for  a  child  between 
eight  and  twelve  years,  fifteen  cents  (seventy-five  centimes) 
for  a  young  person  between  thirteen  and  sixteen  years  of  age.16 
Villerme,  who  made  a  careful  survey  of  factory  conditions 
towards  1840  for  the  Academy  of  Moral  and  Political  Sciences, 
reported  that  in  general  the  working  day  for  all  factory-work- 
ers in  the  cotton  and  wool  industries  was  from  fifteen  to  fif- 
teen and  a  half  hours,  i.  e.  at  least  thirteen  hours  of  effective 
work,  but  in  some  places  conditions  were  still  worse.17  An- 
other investigator,  in  1847,  asserts  that  workingmen  occasion- 
ally were  employed  twenty-four  hours  at  a  stretch  in  some  of 
the  factories  in  northern  France.18 

Some  suggestion  has  already  been  given  regarding  wages. 


THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

A  few  additional  statements  may  make  the  situation  clearer. 
In  1832  the  Baron  de  Morogues  estimated  that  an  industrial 
workingman  might  be  able  to  earn,  at  thirty  cents  (i  fr.  50  c.) 
a  day,  about  ninety  dollars  (450  fr.)  a  year.  The  cost  of  sup- 
porting his  family  (counting  three  children  to  the  normal 
family)  would  be,  at  a  conservative  estimate,  over  170  dollars 
(860  francs),  making  no  provision  for  sickness  or  accident,  or 
for  saving.  In  other  words,  his  wages  would  pay  little  more 
than  half  the  cost  of  the  bare  necessities  of  a  hand-to-mouth 
life.  He  could  live  only  if  his  wife  and  his  children  also 
worked  in  the  factory;  counting  their  earnings,  the  family  in- 
come would  probably  fall  only  a  little  short  of  the  cost  of  liv- 
ing.19 The  Vicomte  Alban  de  Villeneuve-Bargemont,  writing 
in  1834,  said  that  according  to  his  own  investigations,  the 
estimate  of  860  francs  for  the  cost  of  living  was  too  low.20 
Certain  it  is  that  a  man's  wages  were  often  less  than  thirty 
cents  a  day.  An  industrial  crisis  —  and  crises  were  frequent 
—  or  an  accident,  or  a  spell  of  sickness,  would  suffice  to  plunge 
the  family  into  destitution,  which  meant  starvation,  or  pauper- 
ism, or  crime,  or,  sometimes,  all  three.21 

The  employment  of  women  and  children  in  the  factories 
was  one  of  the  worst  abuses.  Children  were  needed  in  the 
textile  factories,  because  they  were  cheap,  and  because  "  the 
task  which  is  confided  to  them  requires  a  delicacy  of  the  fingers 
in  mending  threads,  and  a  suppleness  of  the  body  in  gliding 
under  the  looms,  which  are  not  found  in  adults."  22  The  chil- 
dren entered  the  factories  at  six  to  nine  years  of  age,  some- 
times earlier;  they  were  compelled  to  work,  like  adults,  thir- 
teen hours  or  more  a  day  not  including  meal  hours.23 

This  might  be  harmful  for  the  children,  but,  said  the  manu- 
facturers, it  was  necessary. 

It  is  proved  by  the  facts  that  it  is  not  to  the  spinning  factories 
that  the  evil  must  be  attributed.  If  you  indicate  [as  a  maximum] 
eight  hours,  ten  hours,  eleven  hours  of  labor,  according  to  the 
age  of  the  children,  you  will  condemn  several  industries  to  witness 
the  slowing-up,  even  the  cessation,  of  their  operations,  because 
they  could  not  stand  competition  if  they  were  deprived  of  child- 
labor.2* 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING         9 

What  argument  could  be  more  conclusive? 

The  effect  upon  the  children  was  terrible.  In  soul  and  body 
they  were  starved,  dwarfed,  deformed.  Contemporary  ob- 
servers seem  to  have  been  horrified  at  the  viciousness  and  the 
physical  degeneracy  of  these  child-workers.  It  is  an  unpleas- 
ant picture  to  dwell  upon.  The  children,  says  Villerme, 

remain  on  their  feet  sixteen  to  seventeen  hours  a  day,  thirteen 
hours  of  which  are  spent  in  a  closed  room,  with  hardly  a  change 
of  station  or  attitude.  That  is  not  work,  a  task,  it  is  torture;  and 
it  is  inflicted  upon  children  of  from  six  to  eight  years,  underfed, 
poorly  clad,  obliged  to  walk,  at  five  in  the  morning,  the  long  dis- 
tance to  the  factories  and  then  to  walk  back  at  night,  exhausted.25 

In  most  of  the  factories,  Villerme  tells  us,  the  employer  did 
not  permit  the  children  to  be  beaten.  Many  foremen  and 
adult  workers,  however,  avowed  that  they  often  found  it 
necessary  to  beat  the  children.  It  is  even  asserted  that,  in 
certain  factories  in  Normandy,  "  in  rush-seasons,  when  the 
workingmen  spend  the  night  at  labor,  the  children  also  have  to 
stay  awake  and  work,  and  when  these  poor  creatures,  succumb- 
ing to  sleep,  cease  to  move,  they  are  awakened  by  all  possible 
means,  including  the  use  of  the  lash."  26 

That  the  working  classes  were  so  inhumanly  exploited  un- 
der the  new  industrial  regime  was  due  to  a  remarkable  his- 
torical coincidence.  The  invention  of  machinery,  which  di- 
minished the  importance  of  skilled  labor  and  increased  the  im- 
portance of  capital  in  industry,  occurred  just  at  the  time  when 
the  new  science  of  "  political  economy  "  was  arising  to  exalt 
still  higher  the  importance  of  capital,  and  to  destroy  any  hope 
of  government  intervention  on  behalf  of  labor. 

The  science  of  political  economy  was  originated  by  a  group 
of  French  writers,  the  so-called  Economistes  or  Physiocrates*7 
in  the  third  quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Dr.  Ques- 
nay,28  physician  to  Louis  XV  and  Mme.  de  Pompadour,  was 
their  acknowledged  chief ;  prominent  among  his  disciples  were 
Du  Pont  de  Nemours,29  president  of  the  Constituent  Assembly 
in  1790  and  president  of  the  Council  of  Elders  under  the  Di- 
rectory, Marquis  de  Mirabeau 30  (father  of  the  famous  Revo- 


10  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

lutionary  orator  and  statesman),  Mercier  de  la  Riviere,31  Le 
Trosne,32  Father  Baudeau  33  and  Turgot,34  the  great  minister 
of  Louis  XVI.  Quesnay  and  his  followers  spoke  with  the  au- 
thority of  natural  scientists.  Their  doctrine,  said  Du  Pont  de 
Nemours,  was  "  the  science  of  the  natural  Order."  35  And  by 
the  "  natural  order  "  was  understood  the  free  play  of  private 
interests,  untrammeled  by  legislative  restrictions  or  regulations. 
"  We  'have  seen  that  it  is  of  the  essence  of  order  that  the 
private  interest  of  an  individual  can  never  be  separated  from 
the  common  interest  of  all.  .  .  .  [Under  a  regime  of  liberty] 
private  interest  perpetually  and  urgently  presses  every  indi- 
vidual to  perfect  and  multiply  the  things  he  sells,  -to  increase 
thus  the  sum  of  the  enjoyments  he  can  procure  for  other  men, 
in  order  to  increase,  by  this  means,  the  sum  of  enjoyments 
other  men  can  procure  for  him  in  exchange.  Society  then  runs 
itself ;  the  desire  of  wealth  and  the  liberty  of  possession  in- 
cessantly promote  the  multiplication  of  production  and  the 
expansion  of  industry,  and  impart  to  society  entire  a  movement 
which  becomes  a  perpetual  tendency  toward  the  best  possible 
condition."  36  The  functions  of  government,  therefore,  should 
consist  principally  in  not  obstructing  the  automatic  and  benefi- 
cent operation  of  economic  laws,  and  in  "  punishing  the  small 
number  of  people  who  attack  the  property  of  others." 37 
" Laissez  faire  et  laissez  passer":38  let  industry  and  commerce 
alone.  Again  we  read, 

The  sovereign  authority  is  not  instituted  to  make  lau's;  for  the 
laws  are  all  made  by  the  hand  of  Him  who  created  rights  and 
duties. 

The  social  laws,  established  by  the  Supreme  Being,  prescribe 
solely  the  conservation  of  the  right  of  property  and  of  the  liberty 
which  is  inseparable  from  it. 

The  ordinances  of  sovereigns,  which  are  called  positive  laws, 
should  be  merely  acts  declaratory  of  these  essential  laws  of  the 
social  order.39 

The  natural  inference  from  such  principles  is  that  the  cap- 
italist should  be  left  free  to  drive  as  hard  a  bargain  as  he  will 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       II 

with  the  workingman,  while  the  government  protects  the  cap- 
italist's property  and  restrains  the  workingman  from  forming 
labor  coalitions  which  might  prevent  free  bargaining  between 
the  employer  and  the  individual  employee. 

The  Physiocratic  school  of  economy  flourished  before  the 
Industrial  Revolution  had  profoundly  affected  France ;  indeed, 
,the  Physiocrats  were  chiefly  preoccupied  with  agriculture 
rather  than  with  industry,  and  their  doctrines  were  radically 
amended  by  later  British  economists,  such  as  Adam  Smith, 
Malthus,  Ricardo,  James  Mill,  and  Nassau  Senior.  However, 
their  "  scientific  "  justification  of  economic  liberty  and  of  the 
free  play  of  private  interest  remained  a  fundamental  principle 
of  economic  theory  and  a  maxim  of  statecraft  throughout 
the  greater  part  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

In  France,  especially,  even  after  many  of  the  doctrines  of 
the  Physiocrats  had  been  refuted,  and  after  the  effects  of  the 
Industrial  Revolution  had  become  manifest,  economic  science 
continued  to  insist  as  had  the  Physiocrats  upon  the  unwisdom 
of  legislative  interference  with  economic  laws,  upon  the  neces- 
sity of  economic  liberty,  and  hence  upon  the  inexpediency  of 
governmental  intervention  in  labor1  questions.  These  three 
correlated  principles  formed  the  core  of  what  we  may  describe 
as  Economic  Liberalism. 

A  Protestant  economist,  J.  B.  Say,40  who  was  himself  an  in- 
dustrial capitalist 41  and  may  be  considered  Adam  Smith's 
foremost  disciple  (but  not  merely  a  disciple)  among  French 
economists,42  held  that  the  laws  of  political  economy  are  not 
at  all  the  work  of  man.  "  They  result  from  the  nature  of 
things,  quite  as  surely  as  do  the  laws  of  the  physical  universe ; 
they  are  not  invented,  they  are  discovered ;  they  govern  the 
rulers  who  govern  others,  and  are  never  violated  with  im- 
punity." 43  Wages  depend  upon  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand, and  naturally  tend  to  the  barest  minimum  of  subsistence ; 
profits  depend  upon  supply  and  demand  and  upon  the  capacity 
of  the  individual.44  Who,  then,  will  be  so  bold  as  to  interfere? 
"  We  conclude,  as  a  general  thesis,  that  the  most  favorable 


12  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

legislation  for  industry  is  that  which  procures  for  everybody 
in  the  highest  degree  liberty  and  security  of  person  and  prop- 
erty." 45 

As  the  Industrial  Revolution  in  France  progressed,  during 
the  second  quarter  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  leading 
French  economists  became  even  more  emphatic,  if  possible,  in 
their  defense  of  economic  liberty  and  in  their  condemnation 
of  intervention.  The  great  economist  of  the  period,  Frederic 
Bastiat,46  has  been  styled,  with  much  justice,  "the  incarnation 
of  bourgeois  political  economy." 47  The  rate  of  wages  de- 
pended upon  supply  and  demand,  not  upon  the  generosity  or 
avarice  of  the  employer,  said  Bastiat.48  Liberty,  pure  and 
undefiled,  was  his  solution  for  social  problems.  "  Oh !  So 
many  things  have  been  tried !  When  will  the  time  come,  then, 
when  we  shall  try  the  simplest  of  all:  Liberty?"49  He  be- 
lieved in  liberty  because  he  was  convinced  that  economic  laws 
were  in  themselves  beneficent  and  harmonious,  and  tended  to 
the  improvement  of  society,  if  allowed  to  operate  freely.50 
"  When  you  are  thoroughly  convinced  that  each  of  the  mole- 
cules which  compose  a  liquid  has  in  itself  the  force  whence  re- 
sults the  general  level,  you  conclude  that  there  is  no  surer  or 
simpler  method  of  obtaining  this  level  than  not  meddling  with 
it.  All  those,  therefore,  who  adopt  this  point  of  departure, 
that  interests  are  harmonious,  will  agree  on  the  practical  solu- 
tion of  the  social  problem :  to  refrain  from  opposing  and  dis- 
placing interests."  51  Interests  are  harmonious,  therefore  the 
entire  solution  is  in  one  word :  "  LIBERTY."  52  Placing  his  faith 
in  economic  laws,  rather  than  in  artificial  legislation,  he  quite 
naturally  opposed  any  such  measures  of  social  reform  as  work- 
ingmen's  insurance,  workingmen's  pensions,  profit-sharing,  free 
public  education.53  Believing  that  he  had  discovered  the  veri- 
table solution  of  the  economic  problem,  Bastiat  died  with  the 
words  "  The  Truth  "  on  his  lips.54 

Similarly  Charles  Dunoyer,  in  his  treatise.  "  On  the  Liberty 
of  Labor,  or  simple  exposition  of  the  conditions  under  which 
human  forces  exert  themselves  with  the  greatest  power " 
(i845),55  explained  how  the  true  means  of  remedying  the  evils 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING        13 

under  which  the  working  classes  suffered  were  to  be  found 
in  an  extension  of  the  regime  of  competition.56  He  therefore 
condemned  not  only  government  intervention  in  behalf  of  labor, 
but  even  the  formation  of  labor  organizations,  as  disadvan- 
tageous to  the  free  operation  of  economic  laws.57  Thanks  to 
his  optimistic  economic  creed,  Dunoyer  was  able  to  regard  the 
existence  of  poverty  in  a  comfortably  philosophical  mood. 
"  It  is  well,"  he  wrote,  "  that  there  exist  in  society  certain 
lower  regions  into  which  families  which  do  not  conduct  them- 
selves well  are  in  danger  of  falling  and  from  which  they  cannot 
escape  except  by  virtue  of  good  conduct.  Poverty  is  this  ter- 
rible hell.  ...  It  is  made  to  cause  salutary  fright;  it  exhorts 
them  [workingmen]  to  practise  the  difficult  virtues  which  they 
need  to  achieve  a  better  situation."  58 

In  short,  Bastiat  and  Dunoyer  preached  the  social  benefits 
of  an  unrestrained  economic  struggle  for  life.  A  generation 
later,  Darwin's  Origin  of  Species  (1859),  setting  forth  the 
biological  thesis  that  the  difficulties  of  existence  with  "  unerring 
power  "  select  those  variations  of  natural  species  which  are  best 
qualified  to  survive,  and  destroy  the  unqualified,  seemed  to  pro- 
vide powerful  support  for  economic  individualism.  If  the 
struggle  for  existence  had  been  demonstrated  to  be  the  agent  of 
natural  selection  in  biology,  why  not  also  in  human  society? 
Darwinism  in  biology  and  Liberalism  in  economics  seemed  to 
lend  each  other  mutual  confirmation.  If  Liberalism  declined 
during  the  latter  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  it  was  not  for 
lack  of  philosophical  appeal,  but  because  of  the  rise  of  powerful 
opposing  forces.  One  of  the  opposing  forces  was  Social 
Catholicism. 

FRENCH  PIONEERS  OF  SOCIAL  CATHOLICISM 

The  ideas  of  Social  Catholicism  were  conceived  during  a 
period  when  the  Industrial  Revolution  was  causing  terrible 
suffering  among  the  working  classes,  and  the  classical  school 
of  political  economists  was  teaching  that  any  effort  to  protect 
the  working  classes  would  be  an  unwise  interference  with 
economic  liberty.  Social  Catholicism,  therefore,  had  to  find 


14  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

not  only  a  practical  remedy  for  the  appalling  poverty  of  the 
masses,  but  also  a  theoretical  refutation  of  classical  or  Liberal 
economic  science.  This  necessity,  growing  out  of  the  very  situ- 
ation which  called  Social  Catholicism  into  existence,  will  per- 
haps help  to  explain  the  distinctly  anti-Liberal  tendency  which 
at  first  characterized  and  long  afterwards  embarrassed  the 
movement. 

This  hostility  to  Liberalism  is  a  dominant  note  in  the  first 
protests  raised  by  Catholics  against  the  social  consequences  of 
the  Industrial  Revolution.  As  early  as  1818,  when  the  effects 
of  the  Industrial  Revolution  were  manifest  in  England,  but  not 
yet  in  France,  the  Vicomte  de  Bonald  59  pointed  out  that  "  not- 
withstanding the  wealth  of  the  nation,  there  is  in  England 
more  individual  poverty  than  anywhere  else,  and  Mr.  Morton 
Eden  in  his  State  of  the  Poor  and  Mr.  Malthus  in  his  Essay  on 
the  Principle  of  Population  enter  into  almost  incredible  details 
on  this  subject."  For  his  part,  he  would  prefer  "  fewer  mil- 
lionaires and  fewer  paupers  "  than  existed  in  England.  And 
he  added,  "  I  know  that  a  Liberal  philosophy  will  treat  this 
consideration  as  superficial,  and  will  refer,  by  way  of  reply, 
to  the  perfection  of  industrial  arts,  commerce,  credit,  etc.,  etc. 
But  I  confess  that  I  do  not  conceive  public  wealth  as  an 
abstract  matter  without  application  to  a  very  large  part  of  the 
individual  citizens."  60 

Bonald's  attack  on  Economic  Liberalism  was  the  natural 
reply  of  a  royalist,  an  aristocrat,  a  returned  emigre,  to  the  social 
and  political  philosophy  of  the  new  age.61 

Chateaubriand,62  another  royalist  and  returned  emigre,  emi- 
nent in  politics  and  diplomacy  under  the  Restoration,  was  un- 
certain what  the  future  held  in  store,  and  seemed  to  believe 
that  the  old  order  was  changing;  but  he  could  not  accept  the 
philosophy  of  Liberalism,  nor  could  he  regard  the  French  Revo- 
lution without  repugnance.63  He  resolutely  maintained  that  in 
the  teachings  of  Christianity  were  found  the  only  enduring 
supports  of  a  sound  political  and  social  order.64  It  is  because 
of  his  emphasis  on  the  social  value  of  Christian  doctrines  that 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       15 

Chateaubriand  merits  mention  in  this  narrative,  rather  than  for 
any  constructive  ideas  as  to  the  application  of  those  doctrines. 
To  be  sure,  he  prophesied,  in  1831,  that  "  a  time  will  come  when 
it  will  seem  inconceivable  that  a  social  order  ever  existed  in 
which  one  man  enjoyed  an  income  of  a  million,  while  another 
had  not  the  wherewithal  to  pay  for  his  dinner."  65  But  his 
reflections  took  the  turn  of  forebodings  rather  than  of  pro- 
posals. 

Under  the  old  regime,  he  believed,  the  inequality  of  property 
had  been  "  tempered  by  the  diffusion  of  moral  laws,"  by  charity, 
by  religion.  In  the  new  order,  he  asked,  "  can  a  political  state 
in  which  some  individuals  are  millionaires  while  others  die  of 
hunger  exist  when  religion  is  no  longer  present  with  its  hopes 
beyond  this  world  to  explain  the  sacrifice?"  He  went  on  to 
say, — 

In  the  measure  as  instruction  descends  into  the  lower  classes, 
they  will  discover  the  secret  plague  which  infects  the  irreligious 
social  order.  The  too  great  disproportion  of  conditions  and  for- 
tunes could  maintain  itself  as  long  as  it  was  concealed ;  but  as 
soon  as  this  disproportion  was  generally  perceived,  the  mortal  blow 
was  struck.  Reconstruct,  if  you  can,  the  aristocratic  fictions ;  try 
to  persuade  the  poor  man, —  when  he  knows  how  to  read  and  has 
no  beliefs,  when  he  possesses  the  same  education  as  you, —  try  to 
persuade  him  that  he  must  submit  to  all  privations,  while  his  neigh- 
bor possesses  a  thousand-fold  superfluity;  as  a  last  resort,  you  will 
have  to  kill  him.68 

And  on  another  page,  Chateaubriand  disposed  in  short  order 
of  the  Saint-Simonians,  Fourierites,  Owenites,  socialists  and 
communists  as  visionaries.67 

The  "  other-worldly "  consolation  so  strongly  emphasized 
by  Chateaubriand  is  not  the  feature  that  modern  French  Social 
Catholics  would  stress.  They  seek  in  Christianity  not  a  pre- 
servative of  unjust  economic  inequality,  but  the  principles  for 
social  reform  to  the  end  of  doing  away  with  social  injustices. 
Herein,  it  may  be  remarked,  is  to  be  discovered  the  true 
measure  of  progress  in  social  thought  among  French  Catholics 


16  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

in  the  nineteenth  century, —  the  progress  from  a  conception  of 
religion  as  a  social  anaesthetic  to  a  conception  of  Christianity 
as  the  enemy  of  social  injustice. 

Not  all  the  early  Catholic  protestants  against  Liberalism 
were  royalists  by  tradition.  Buchez,68  for  example,  had  been  a 
Carbonaro  and  a  Saint-Simonian  socialist  and  returned  to  the 
Catholic  faith  later  in  life.  -In  his  judgment,  the  individualistic 
political  economy  dominant  in  the  early  nineteeth  century  was 
positively  immoral.69  The  poverty  and  degradation  of  the 
masses  was  in  truth  neither  inevitable  nor  a  matter  of  indif- 
ference to  the  state ;  rather,  society  should  assure  to  every 
laborer  a  sufficient  wage,  and  should  also  endeavor  by  means 
of  sanitary  and  hygienic  measures  to  improve  the  workingman's 
health.70  He  advocated  cooperative  societies  of  production  for 
small-scale  industry.  Workers  in  the  same  trade  should  estab- 
lish a  joint  capital,  eliminating  the  professional  capitalist,  and 
should  set  aside  a  fifth  of  their  profits  each  year  to  maintain 
and  increase  their  capital.71  Buchez  inspired  philosophical 
economists  like  Dr.  Ott 72  as  well  as  artisans  like  Gillaud, 
Pascal,  Genoux,  and  Perdiguier.73  He  founded  a  journal  with 
the  interesting  name  of  "The  Workshop"  (L' Atelier^),  which 
flourished  during  the  period  1840-1850,  and  which  had  as  its 
motto  St.  Paul's  famous  dictum,  "  He  who  will  not  work,  shall 
not  eat,"  and  as  its  purpose,  "  unceasingly  to  urge  the  working- 
men  to  make  the  conquest  of  their  instruments  of  labor  by 
means  of  free  and  voluntary  association."  74  Buchez,  however, 
was  too  radical  in  his  political  theories  to  be  typical  of  the 
precursors  of  Social  Catholicism.  Whereas  most  Social 
Catholics  abhorred  the  French  Revolution,  Buchez  wrote,  "  the 
human  purpose  of  Christianity  is  identically  the  same  as  that 
of  the  Revolution :  it  is  the  former  that  inspired  the  latter."  75 

The  religious  element  was  frequently  brought  out  with 
marked  emphasis.  Gerbet,76  bishop  and  philosopher,  rebuked 
the  political  economists  for  their  failure  to  recognize  theology 
as  the  true  basis  of  social  economy,  and  in  glowing  sentences 
exhorted  the  Christian  clergy  to  "  take  their  stand  in  the  Future, 
and  establish  themselves  as  at  once  the  defenders,  the  modera- 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       17 

tors,  and  the  guides  of  the  interests  of  the  masses,"  for,  "  if 
the  lower  classes  revolt  before  Christianity  has  been  recon- 
structed in  their  spirits,  Europe  will  witness  terrible  struggles, 
the  like  of  which,  perhaps,  has  not  been  recorded  in  the  annals 
of  the  world."  77  One  of  his  most  remarkable  utterances  is 
found  in  a  Lenten  pastoral  letter  of  1838:  "The  proletarian 
without  religion  is  either  an  idiot  or  a  Communist."  78 

Louis  Veuillot,79  whose  distinguished  career  as  a  clerical 
journalist  and  controversialist  began  under  the  July  Monarchy 
and  continued  through  the  Second  Empire  and  into  the  early 
years  of  the  Third  Republic,  very  clearly  held  up  Christian 
social  economy  as  the  contradictory  of  Political  Economy. 
Brought  up  in  the  humble  cottage  of  a  cooper,  Veuillot  had 
almost  from  his  boyhood  nourished  a  furious  hatred  of  the 
Free-Thinking  bourgeoisie,  which  he  regarded  as  hostile  both 
to  the  church  and  to  the  common  people.  Political  Economy, 
he  held,  "  is  as  profoundly  calamitous  as  it  is  profoundly  im- 
pious," since  it  destroys  the  Christian  notion  of  charity  and 
divides  men  into  the  "  hostile  classes  "  of  rich  and  poor.  "  Be- 
fore making  the  poor  able  to  live,  Political  Economy  first 
absolves  the  rich  and  fortunate  from  the  duty  of  assisting  them. 
By  virtue  of  its  counsels,  the  destitute  [workingmen]  become 
fodder  for  factories,  just  as  in  the  eyes  of  certain  diplomats 
they  are  fodder  for  cannon;  and  competition,  like  war,  sacri- 
fices armies."  80  The  true  science  of  social  economy,  Veuillot 
declared,  would  destroy  destitution  (misdre),  but  not  poverty 
(pauvrete},  "which  is  a  divine  institution."  This  true  social 
science  was  Charity.81 

A  journalist,  like  Veuillot,  but  much  bolder  in  his  concep- 
tion of  the  social  mission  of  Christianity,  was  Jean  Baptiste 
Henri  Dominique  Lacordaire.82  After  a  youthful  apostasy, 
Lacordaire  was  led  back  to  the  Catholic  faith,  he  said,  by  his 
social  ideas.83  He  was  subsequently  ordained  to  the  priest- 
hood, and  was  the  prime  mover  in  reestablishing  the  Dominican 
order  in  France.  Whether  in  the  pulpit  or  in  the  press  (for 
he  collaborated  with  Lamennais  on  L'Avenir  and  later  edited 
L'Ere  Nouvelle},  Lacordaire  was  indefatigable  in  championing 


r§  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Christianity  and  democracy,  in  the  name  of  "  God  and  Free- 
dom." As  regards  social  philosophy,  he  provided  the  later 
Social  Catholics  with  an  arsenal  of  arguments  against  Economic 
Liberalism  and  in  favor  of  social  legislation.  His  remarkable 
talent  for  incisive  epigrammatic  utterance  gave  his  arguments 
added  force.  "  Between  the  strong  and  the  weak,"  he  declared 
in  1848,  "  between  the  rich  and  the  poor,  between  the  master 
and  the  servant,  it  is  liberty  which  oppresses  and  law  which 
makes  free." 84  Developing  the  thought,  he  argued,  "  that 
absolute  laissez-faire  is  the  abandonment  of  the  weak  in  the 
hands  of  the  strong  "  ;  "  that  whenever  laws  have  been  made  it 
has  been  for  the  protection  of  the  weakest " ;  "  that  the  work- 
ingman  is  weaker  than  the  master  " ;  that,  therefore,  the  work- 
ingman  should  be  protected  by  law.85 

Enough  has  been  quoted  from  Catholic  writers  of  the  first 
half  of  the  nineteenth  century  to  exhibit  the  nature  of  their 
attack  on  Economic  Liberalism,  and  to  show  their  tendency  to 
substitute  a  Christian  philosophy  of  social  reform  for  the  ac- 
cepted teachings  of  economic  science.  We  may  now  turn  from 
the  theoretical  to  the  practical  side  of  the  question,  and  examine 
the  definite  proposals  advanced  and  the  institutions  founded  by 
the  pioneers  of  Social  Catholicism,  for  the  relief  of  the  working- 
classes. 

The  practical  aspect  of  early  Social  Catholicism  is  well 
exemplified  in  the  labors  of  the  Vicomte  Armand  de  Melun.80 
Melun,  an  aristocrat  by  birth  and  a  Legitimist  by  family  tradi- 
tion, had  been  destined  for  a  diplomatic  career,  but  shortly 
after  the  July  Revolution  of  1830  he  decided  to  devote  his  life 
to  social  rather  than  to  the  diplomatic  service,  and  began  to 
do  charitable  work  among  the  poor  in  the  Quartier  Saint- 
Medard.  At  first,  the  idea  that  charity  was  a  religious  duty 
seemed  to  be  the  sum  and  substance  of  his  social  philosophy. 
As  his  thought  developed,  however,  he  evolved  ambitious 
schemes  of  organized  charity,  then  of  an  international  chari- 
table organization;  he  became  an  earnest  advocate  of  social 
legislation;  and,  in  the  hope  that  by  some  such  means  the 
workingman  might  be  protected  from  the  rigors  of  the  existing 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       19 

competitive  regime  in  industry,  he  proposed  the  revival  of  the 
old  industrial  corporations  or  guilds.  In  the  field  of  charitable 
organization,  he  was  the  outstanding  figure  of  his  generation. 
He  instituted  what  might  be  called  a  Charity  Organization 
Committee  (Comite  des  dLuvres),  in  1842.  In  1844  he  estab- 
lished a  review,  the  Annales  de  la  cJiarite,^  concerning  itself 
with  questions  relative  to  hospitals,  child-labor,  unemployment, 
the  cooperative  movement,  prisoners,  trade-unionism,  popular 
education,  and  with  social  service  generally.  A  few  years  later 
he  organized  an  Association  for  Charitable  Economy  (Societe 
d' economic  cliaritable)  and  even  an  International  Association 
for  Charity  (Societe  Internationale  de  charite}-;^  in  March, 
1848,  after  the  overthrow  of  the  Orleanist  monarchy,  he  in- 
duced Mme.  Lamartine  and  the  wives  of  the  other  members  of 
the  provisional  government  to  form  a  "  Fraternal  Association 
in  Favor  of  the  Poor  "  (Association  fraternelle  en  faveur  des 
pauvres).  Before  1848,  Melun  was  chiefly  concerned  with 
private  charity;  but  after  the  Revolution  of  1848,  as  we  shall 
see,  he  became  one  of  the  foremost  champions  of  social  legisla- 
tion in  the  national  parliament. 

The  precursors  of  Social  Catholicism  rarely  elaborated 
extensive  programs  of  social  legislation ;  Economic  Liberalism 
was  still  too  strongly  entrenched  to  permit  any  hope  of  radical 
labor  legislation  in  the  near  future.  But  in  agitating  for  mod- 
est measures  of  intervention,  such  as  the  legislative  prohibition 
of  child  labor,  the  forerunners  of  the  Social  Catholic  move- 
ment helped  to  drive  home  the  entering  wedge  for  reforms  of 
wider  scope.  Among  the  early  opponents  of  child  labor  was 
Cardinal  Croi,  Archbishop  of  Rouen.89  In  his  Lenten  Pastoral 
of  1838,  the  cardinal  made  a  strong  plea  in  behalf  of  the  chil- 
dren, "  these  young  plants,"  from  whom  "  parents  and  employ- 
ers demanded  fruit  in  the  season  of  flowers."  "  Poor  little 
children,"  he  exclaimed,  "  God  speed  the  day  when  the  laws 
will  extend  their  protection  over  your  existence." 90  The 
Vicomte  de  Villeneuve-Bargemont,91  a  Catholic  deputy  and 
economist,  was  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  authors  and  de- 
fenders, in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  of  the  law  of  1841  estab- 


20  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

lishing  a  maximum  working  day  of  eight  hours  for  children 
under  eight  years  of  age  in  manufacturing  employments.92 
In  the  Chamber  of  Peers,  this  measure  found  one  of  its  most 
vigorous  champions  in  Count  Charles  de  Montalembert,93  a 
former  collaborator  of  Lacordaire  and  Lamennais.  The  fact 
that  the  child-labor  law  of  1841  represents  the  French  govern- 
ment's first  departure  from  the  principle  of  non-intervention  in 
labor  questions,  lends  some  importance  to  the  efforts  of  Melun, 
Cardinal  Croi,  Villeneuve-Bargemont,  Montalembert,  and 
other  Social  Catholic  pioneers  in  behalf  of  the  reform. 

Villeneuve-Bargemont 94  merits  more  than  passing  mention. 
He  attained  prominence  by  his  success  as  an  administrative 
official,  under  the  Empire  and  under  the  government  of  the 
Restoration  period;  in  1812  he  became  prefect;  in  1828,  coun- 
cillor of  state;  in  1830  he  was  elected  to  the  national  legis- 
lature. As  a  Legitimist,  however,  he  could  not  hope  for  an 
important  public  career  under  Louis  Philippe.  A  few  years 
after  the  enthronement  of  Louis  Philippe,  consequently,  we 
find  Villeneuve-Bargemont  turning  his  attention  from  politics 
to  political  economy.  A  visit  to  Lille,  where  there  were  almost 
32,000  paupers,  in  a  population  of  70,000,  seems  to  have  made 
a  tremendous  impression  upon  his  economic  philosophy.95  The 
problem  of  preventing  pauperism  became  his  favorite  theme. 
The  very  titles  of  his  writings  show  the  trend  of  his  thought : 
Christian  Political  Economy,  or  an  Inquiry  into  the  Nature 
and  Causes  of  Pauperism  in  France  and  in  Europe,  and  into 
the  means  of  Alleviating  and  Preventing  It  (i834),96  History 
of  Political  Economy,  or  Historical,  Philosophical  and  Reli- 
gious Studies  on  the  Political  Economy  of  Ancient  and  Modern 
Peoples  (i84i),97  and  The  Book  of  the  Afflicted  (i84i).98 
In  the  last-mentioned  work,  he  portrayed  the  misery  of  the 
"  indigent  workingmen,"  and  ascribed  the  lamentable  condition 
of  the  laboring  classes  to  the  social  indifference  of  profit-seek- 
ing employers  and  to  the  narrow-mindedness  of  legislators  who 
thought  their  duty  accomplished  when  they  had  prohibited  labor 
organizations. 

Vigorously  attacking  the  economic  theories  of  Adam  Smith 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       21 

and  J.  B.  Say,  he  declared  that  the  great  and  pressing  problem 
for  economists  to  solve  was  not  the  augmentation  of  production, 
but  the  "  equitable  distribution  "  of  wealth  and  the  diffusion 
of  prosperity."  The  accepted  economic  science  of  the  day 
he  regarded  as  fundamentally  false ;  its  errors  he  attributed  to 
the  heretical  influence  of  the  Reformation.  A  true  Christian 
political  economy  would  justify  state  intervention  to  protect 
labor  against  the  "  new  feudalism  of  the  employers."  10° 

With  all  the  authority  of  his  administrative  experience  and 
economic  erudition,  Villeneuve-Bargemont  advocated  social 
legislation, —  not  merely  occasional  legislative  intervention  to 
alleviate  some  particularly  outrageous  abuse,  but  systematic 
regulation.  The  evil  was  deep-seated,  and  required  thorough- 
going remedies.  "  The  wretchedness,"  he  said,  "  which  crushes 
the  laborers,  has  profound  causes  which  must  be  cured.  If  one 
looks  for  the  numerous  causes  of  this  general  and  perpetual 
poverty,  one  is  compelled  to  recognize  that  the  first  and  most 
active  of  all  is  found  in  the  principle  of  an  almost  unlimited 
production  and  of  an  equally  unlimited  competition,  which  im- 
poses upon  industrial  entrepreneurs  the  ever-growing  obliga- 
tion of  lowering  the  price  of  labor,  and  upon  the  workingmen 
the  necessity  of  surrendering  themselves,  their  wives  and  their 
children  to  a  labor  the  excessive  quantity  and  duration  of  which 
exceed  the  measure  of  their  strength,  and  for  a  wage  which 
does  not  always  suffice  for  even  the  most  wretched  exist- 
ence." 101  It  would  be  unjust  to  accuse  the  employers  of  sole 
responsibility  for  these  evils.  The  fault  was  with  the  situation. 
Machinery  had  revolutionized  industry  while  the  abolition  of 
the  old  restrictive  laws  had  allowed  production  to  increase  enor- 
mously ;  but  in  destroying  the  obstacles  to  industrial  develop- 
ment, legislators  had  also  destroyed  the  guarantees  which  pro- 
tected labor.  The  present  task,  therefore,  was  to  renounce  the 
economic  theory  of  non-intervention,  and  to  establish  a  system 
in  which  the  workingmen  would  be  treated  as  human  beings 
rather  than  as  merchandise.  This  task,  the  restoration  of  the 
working  classes,  he  said,  was  "  the  great  problem  of  our 
age."  102 


22  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

To  prepare  the  needed  code  of  social  legislation,  a  commis- 
sion composed  of  peers,  deputies,  state  councillors,  magistrates, 
and  "  enlightened  citizens,"  should  be  established  under  the 
authority  of  the  ministry  of  justice.  This  commission  would 
examine  ancient  and  modern  legislation,  institute  investigations 
of  the  condition  of  the  working-classes,  and  draft  the  necessary 
laws,  in  the  light  of  their  investigations.103 

Among  the  specific  measures  recommended  as  practicable,  we 
find  the  following.  In  the  first  place,  to  correct  the  ignorance, 
immorality,  and  improvidence  which  were  so  fruitful  a  cause  of 
wretchedness  among  the  lower  classes,  the  communes  should 
establish  compulsory  and  free  schools  for  vocational  training 
and  for  moral  and  religious  instruction.  Provident  banks 
should  be  created  at  the  expense  of  industrial  towns  and  com- 
munes, or  of  charitable  associations,  and  (the  workingmen 
should  be  obliged  to  lay  aside  a  part  of  their  wages,  when  the 
rate  of  their  wages  was  sufficiently  high  so  that  this  obligation 
would  not  be  burdensome.  Workingmen's  guilds  should  be 
created  by  law,  for  the  purpose  of  fostering  the  spirit  of  asso- 
ciation and  mutual  aid ;  but  the  mistakes  of  the  old  guild  system 
should  be  avoided.104 

On  another  page,  Villeneuve-Bargemont  proposed  that  the 
following  obligations  be  imposed  by  law  upon  manufacturers 
employing  more  than  fifty  workingmen :  ( i )  to  maintain  per- 
fectly salubrious  conditions  in  their  shops,  and  to  submit  them 
to  inspection;  (2)  to  establish  schools  for  adult  workers;  (3) 
to  refuse  employment  to  any  person  who  is  under  fourteen 
years  of  age  and  who  has  not  received  a  medical  certificate 
of  fitness  for  industrial  labor;  (4)  to  refuse  employment  to 
any  person  who  has  not  learned  reading,  writing,  and  arith- 
metic; (5)  to  separate  workers  of  the  two  sexes,  and  to  give 
adequate  guarantees  of  respect  for  religion  and  good  morals ; 
(6)  to  form,  for  the  laborers,  provident  or  insurance  funds, 
in  which  would  be  deposited  the  portion  of  wages  in  excess 
of  the  needs  of  the  workingman  and  his  family.105 

As  regards  wages,  Villeneuve-Bargemont  held  that  "  a  just 
rate  of  wages  should  be  the  first  condition  of  all  industrial 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       23 

enterprise."  The  capitalist's  profit  should  be  taken  only  after 
sufficient  wages  had  been  paid  the  workingmen.  By  a  suffi- 
cient wage  was  meant  a  wage  adequate  to  provide  the  working- 
man,  according  to  the  customs  and  requirements  of  the  country 
in  which  he  lived,  ( i )  the  wherewithal  to  exist  properly,  that  is 
to  say,  to  have  nourishing  food,  clean  and  durable  clothes,  and 
a  ventilated  dwelling  affording  proper  protection  against  the 
rigors  of  the  seasons;  (2)  the  wherewithal  to  support  his 
family,  which  may  be  presumed  to  include  a  wife  and  and  two 
children  under  fourteen  years  of  age;  (3)  the  wherewithal  to 
make  some  provision  for  times  of  sickness  and  for  old  age. 
"  If  the  wage  cannot  provide  all  these  things  for  the  working- 
man,"  >he  said,  "  it  is  no  longer  in  conformity  with  the  laws 
not  only  of  nature,  of  justice,  and  of  charity,  but  even  of 
political  prudence."  106 

For  agriculture,  Villeneuve-Bargemont  demanded  ( i )  a  rural 
code,  favoring  small  holdings,  (2)  government  credits  for  agri- 
culturists, (3)  alleviation  of  taxes,  (4)  agricultural  cooperative 
societies.107 

Finally,  he  advocated  international  labor  legislation.  "  If  it 
is  true,"  he  said,  "  if  it  is  recognized  that  unrestrained  competi- 
tion is  the  principal  cause  of  the  evils  which  weigh  upon  the 
manufacturing  classes,  could  one  not  interpose,  in  the  midst  of 
this  universal  competition,  a  moderating  element,  which  the 
other  industrial  nations  might  be  induced  to  adopt  likewise  in 
the  general  interest  of  humanity?  Could  it  not  be  established 
in  principle,  for  example,  that  the  daily  duration  of  effective 
labor,  for  all  workers,  should  not  exceed  thirteen  hours,  twelve 
hours,  or  any  other  limit  deemed  proper?  .  .  ."  At  that  time, 
be  it  remembered,  France  had  placed  absolutely  no  restriction 
on  the  length  of  the  working  day,  and  even  children,  if  we  may 
believe  Villeneuve-Bargemont,  were  often  compelled  to  spend 
sixteen  or  seventeen  hours  a  day  at  the  factory.108 

The  importance  of  Villeneuve-Bargemont's  contribution  to 
the  Social  Catholic  movement  was  very  considerable.  His 
were  not  occasional,  ill-considered,  incidental  remarks  on  the 
social  question ;  they  were  erudite  volumes,  carefully  composed 


24  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

by  an  economist  of  recognized  standing,  and  supported  by  the 
authority  of  long  practical  experience  in  administrative  affairs, 
first-hand  observation  of  social  conditions  in  many  countries, 
and  wide  acquaintance  with  the  standard  writers  on  economic 
science.  His  was  a  serious  and  heavily  documented  contribu- 
tion. None  of  the  "  pioneers  "  mentioned  in  these  pages  has  a 
better  claim  to  the  title  of  "  ancestor  of  Social  Catholicism," 
with  which  a  recent  biographer  109  invests  him. 

The  influence  of  Villeneuve-Bargemont  upon  his  contem- 
poraries is  attested  by  M.  Henry  Michel: 

The  Christian  political  economy  of  Villeneuve-Bargemont  had 
in  the  eyes  of  contemporaries  an  importance  which  we  have  some 
difficulty  in  accounting  for.  The  socialists  cite  this  writer  and  use 
him  as  an  authority.  The  economists  make  an  honorable  place  for 
him.  For  the  rest,  his  polemic  against  industrial  competition  is 
distinguished  by  the  vivacity  with  which  it  is  imbued  and  the  Chris- 
tian socialism  which  there  makes  its  first  appearance.110 

Gaston  Isambert,  a  reformist  socialist  or  solidarist  writer, 
tells  us  that  the  works  of  Villeneuve-Bargemont  prove  that  one 
can  be  "  a  Legitimist,  a  militant  Catholic,  a  member  of  the  In- 
stitute, and  still  have  a  mind  accessible  to  the  idea  of  economic 
justice."  Villeneuve-Bargemont  "  may  be  ranged  along  with 
Sismondi 1X1  among  precursors  of  labor  legislation  and  con- 
sidered as  an  ancestor  of  the  Catholic  solidarist  party,  of  which 
MM.  de  Mun,  Turmann,  Fonsegrive,  etc.,  are  the  present  rep- 
resentatives." 112 

Among  Villeneuve-Bargemont's  friends  n3  was  Charles  de 
Coux,114  "  a  Catholic  professor  who  is  forgotten  nowadays,"  115 
but  who  enjoyed  a  certain  amount  of  influence  in  his  day  espe- 
cially among  the  group  of  Catholic  publicists  who  prefigured 
the  modern  Social  Catholic  movement.  The  son  of  an  emigre, 
de  Coux  had  spent  his  youth  abroad,  part  of  the  time  in 
America,  and  long  contact  with  Protestantism  had  weakened 
his  Catholic  beliefs.  His  studies  in  political  economy,  however, 
led  him  to  form  a  high  opinion  of  the  social  value  of  Catholi- 
cism, and,  like  Lacordaire,  he  was  converted  by  his  social 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       25 

philosophy.116  "  Catholicism,"  he  said,  "  in  its  practical  conse- 
quences, presents  the  most  admirable  system  of  social  economy 
that  has  ever  been  given  to  the  world."  117  "  The  democratic 
tendency  of  Catholicism  in  countries  where  the  poorer  classes 
are  menaced  by  imminent  starvation  is  assuredly  the  most  re- 
markable phenomenon  of  our  epoch,"  118  he  declared,  and  "  to- 
day the  combat  is  essentially  the  same  as  in  the  Middle  Ages : 
Catholicism  is  now  at  grips  with  the  aristocracy  of  capital  as 
formerly  with  the  aristocracy  of  the  land."  119 

De  Coux  was  welcomed  as  an  associate  by  Lamennais,  Lacor- 
daire,  and  the  little  group  of  militant  clerical  but  politically 
"  liberal "  journalists  who  had  founded  L'Avenir  shortly  after 
the  revolution  of  1830.  He  wrote  the  leading  economic  articles 
for  the  journal.  He  may,  therefore,  be  regarded  as  "  the  living 
bond  of  union  between  Villeneuve-Bargemont  and  the  ephem- 
eral but  brilliant  movement  of  Lamennais."  12°  Subsequently, 
when  a  chair  of  political  economy  was  established  at  the  Bel- 
gian University  of  Louvain,  de  Coux  was  called  upon  to  be  its 
first  incumbent. 

His  economic  theories  were  in  large  part  those  of  Villeneuve- 
Bargemont  and  need  not  long  detain  us.  The  classical  Liberal 
economists,  he  held,  by  concerning  themselves  mainly  with  the 
production  of  material  wealth,  had  exerted  a  deleterious  influ- 
ence upon  society.  To  be  sure,  "  gigantic  fortunes  arose  here 
and  there,  towering  above  the  mass  of  terrible  wretchedness," 
but  round  about  them  the  discontent  of  "  a  famished  popula- 
tion "  was  like  the  ominous  murmur  of  angry  floods.  Already 
"  the  maintenance  of  public  tranquillity  requires  a  deployment 
of  forces  which  in  other  ages  would  have  sufficed  to  conquer 
the  universe."  121  Such  was  the  situation  which  the  ideas  of 
orthodox  political  economy  could  not  remedy,  but  could  only 
aggravate.  What  was  needed  was  a  Christianized  political 
economy,  which  would  give  proper  emphasis  to  the  social  value 
of  virtue,  and  would  have  as  its  aim  not  the  mere  increase  of 
production,  but  the  welfare  of  society.122 

Another  remarkable  attempt  to  translate  Catholic  principles 
into  a  practical  program  was  that  made  by  Frederic  Ozanam.123 


26  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

At  a  very  early  age  Ozanam  became  interested  in  the  problem 
of  social  reform,  in  its  relation  to  Christianity.  He  was  only 
eighteen  when  he  wrote  his  Reflections  on  the  Doctrine  of  Saint- 
Simon.12*  Saint-Simon's  challenge  to  the  Pope  to  under- 
take a  mission  of  social  reform  profoundly  stirred  the  heart 
of  the  young  Ozanam.  It  is  well  worth  quoting, — 

Your  predecessors  have  sufficiently  perfected  the  theory  of  Chris- 
tianity; they  have  sufficiently  propagated  that  theory.  ...  It  is  now 
the  general  application  of  this  doctrine  which  must  be  your  con- 
cern. True  Christianity  should  render  men  happy  not  only  in 
heaven,  but  also  on  earth.  .  .  .  You  must  not  content  yourself  with 
preaching  to  the  faithful  of  all  classes  that  the  poor  are  the  be- 
loved children  of  God,  but  you  must  frankly  and  energetically  em- 
ploy all  the  power  and  all  the  resources  acquired  by  the  Church 
militant  to  bring  about  a  speedy  improvement  in  the  moral  and 
physical  condition  of  the  most  numerous  class  .  .  .  the  clergy 
will  always  exercise  a  preponderant  influence  on  the  temporal  in- 
stitutions of  all  nations,  when  it  sets  to  work  in  a  positive  manner 
to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  poorer  class,  which  is  everywhere 
the  most  numerous  class.125 

Ozanam's  entire  life  might  be  regarded  as  a  reply  to  Saint- 
Simon's  challenge,  and  a  not  wholly  unconscious  reply.  For, 
Ozanam  himself  tells  us  that  his  later  works  of  charity  were 
motivated  not  merely  by  a  sense  of  pity,  but  also  by  a  zeal  to 
prove  by  means  of  deeds  the  faith  which  he  professed.126 

Qzanam's  program  rested  on  the  general  principle  that 
neither  Liberty  nor  Authority  must  be  exaggerated,  but  each 
reconciled  with  the  other.  Rejecting  the  extremes  of  absolute 
laissez-faire  and  dictatorial  government  intervention,  Ozanam 
proposed  as  methods  of  ameliorating  the  condition  of  the 
masses :  first,  legislative  intervention  by  the  government  under 
abnormal  conditions ;  second,  the  formation  of  voluntary  asso- 
ciations among  the  workingmen.  Every  workingman,  he  be- 
lieved, was  by  nature  entitled,  as  a  minimum,  to  a  wage  suffi- 
cient to  provide  for  the  necessities  of  life,  for  the  education  of 
his  children,  and  for  the  support  of  his  old  age.127  These  ideas, 
obviously,  were  not  in  harmony  with  the  doctrines  of  the  Liberal 
economists.  "  God  does  not  make  paupers/'  said  Ozanam, 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       27 

"...  It  is  human  liberty  that  makes  paupers."  128  Again, 
denying  the  accepted  economic  thesis  that  labor  is  a  commodity, 
he  declared,  "  the  exploitation  of  man  by  man  is  slavery."  129 

Pronouncements  of  this  tenor  may  at  first  thought  seem  in- 
congruous on  the  lips  of  a  litterateur  and  historian  whose  most 
vivid  intellectual  interest  was  in  medieval  culture,  in  the  writ- 
ings of  Thomas  Aquinas  and  Dante, — since  Ozanam  was  a  pro- 
fessor of  literature  and  a  scholarly  student  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
—  but  in  this  very  incongruity,  if  incongruity  it  be,  a  closer 
scrutiny  will  reveal  a  characteristic  feature  of  Social  Catholi- 
cism. For  the  modern  Social  Catholics  of  France  considered 
their  propaganda  essentially  as  an  attempt  to  revive  and  apply 
the  kindly  medieval  Christian  doctrines  enforcing  the  duty  of 
charity,  the  sinfulness  of  avarice,  the  dignity  of  human  labor, 
and  the  social  responsibility  of  property,  as  substitutes  for  the 
individualistic  counsels  of  the  classical  Liberal  economists.130 
If  the  Social  Catholics  were  quick  to  discern  the  potential 
merits  of  the  trade-union  movement,  it  was  because  they  ad- 
mired the  medieval  guilds.  Ozanam's  most  important  practical 
achievement,  the  creation  of  the  charitable  society  of  Saint  Vin- 
cent de  Paul,131 — which  rapidly  expanded  into  one  of  the 
world's  largest  organizations  for  the  relief  of  poverty, —  had  its 
thirteenth-century  parallel  in  the  work  of  the  mendicant  friars 
among  the  poor.132 

At  this  point  it  is  convenient  to  recapitulate  what  has  been 
said  regarding  the  origin  of  the  social  program  of  Social 
Catholicism.  During  the  half-century  beginning  in  1815,  while 
the  Industrial  Revolution  was  gathering  headway  in  France, 
and  while  the  Liberal  economists  were  advising  against  any 
legislative  protection  of  the  working  classes,  numerous  Catholic 
economists  and  publicists  arose  to  combat  Economic  Liberalism 
and  to  urge  that  something  be  done  to  solve  the  labor  problem 
resulting  from  the  Industrial  Revolution.  These  Catholic  re- 
formers, who  may  be  regarded  as  the  pioneers  of  Social 
Catholicism,  differed  one  with  another  as  regards  political  views 
and  as  regards  certain  points  in  their  social  philosophy,  but, 
taken  as  a  group,  they  may  be  said  to  have  laid  down  at  least 


28  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

five  planks  in  what  was  to  become  the  platform  of  the  Social 
Catholic  movement :  ( i )  instinctive  rebellion  against  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Liberal  school  of  political  economists;  (2)  an  appeal 
to  Christian  charity  and  to  Christian  morals  as  the  basis  of  a 
sounder  economic  and  social  philosophy;  (3)  faith  in  labor 
organization,  and  specifically  in  the  possibility  of  reconstructing 
or  adapting  the  medieval  guild  system  to  meet  modern  needs; 
(4)  insistence  upon  the  justice  of  a  minimum  wage  sufficient 
to  support  the  workingman  and  his  family  in  a  style  befitting 
human  dignity  and  Christian  decency;  (5)  advocacy  of  social 
legislation  to  protect  the  working  classes,  above  all,  the  women 
and  children,  against  the  ruthless  pressure  of  modern  industrial 
methods. 

These  ideas,  as  has  been  shown,  were  originated  and  gained 
considerable  influence  during  the  period  between  the  years  1815 
and  1848.  How  and  why  they  lost  ground,  and  were  funda- 
mentally modified,  during  the  period  of  the  Second  Empire,  that 
is,  roughly  speaking,  between  1850  and  1870,  will  be  explained 
in  the  following  chapter. 

CONSERVATIVE  TRADITIONS  AND  DEMOCRATIC  TENDENCIES 

Before  passing  on  to  the  period  of  the  Second  Empire,  how- 
ever, it  is  of  interest  to  note  that  in  the  earlier  period  there  had 
already  begun  to  manifest  itself  a  strong  tendency  on  the  part 
of  certain  Social  Catholics  to  couple  social  reform  with  political 
democracy,  while  others  evinced  a  contradictory  desire  to  asso- 
ciate Catholic  social  philosophy  with  a  reactionary  political 
theory.  Was  Social  Catholicism  to  become  a  democratic  move- 
ment, or  an  adjunct  of  monarchist  reaction,  or  was  it  to  be 
neutral?  As  the  subsequent  bearing  of  the  Social  Catholic 
movement  depended  upon  the  answer  to  this  question,  it  is  im- 
portant that  we  trace  the  development  of  the  controversy. 

The  reactionary  tendency  was  perhaps  the  more  natural. 
By  contrast  with  the  French  Revolution,  which  had  expropri- 
ated, disestablished,  and  persecuted  the  Church,  the  Bourbon 
Monarchy,  which  had  for  centuries  maintained  Catholicism  as 
the  state  religion,  seemed  the  very  champion  and  defender  of 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       29 

the  Church.  Even  those  Catholics  who  saw  clearly  the  short- 
comings of  the  Bourbons  abhorred  the  Revolution  no  whit  less. 
Joseph  de  Maistre,133  one  of  the  most  eminent  Catholic  apolo- 
gists of  the  early  nineteenth  century,  understood  clearly  enough 
that  the  Bourbon  Monarchy  had  at  times  interfered  with  the 
free  exercise  of  the  pope's  ecclesiastical  authority  in  France, 
and  that  the  French  court  in  the  eighteenth  century  had  been 
deeply  invaded  by  corruption  and  infidelity.  In  a  sense,  de 
Maistre  was  willing  to  regard  the  French  Revolution  as  a  provi- 
dential event,  designed  to  purge  the  French  monarchy  of  its 
vices.134  But  intrinsically,  the  Revolution  was  an  abomination. 
Its  spirit  was  "  satanic."  135  Said  de  Maistre, 

Frenchmen,  it  is  amidst  the  din  of  infernal  chants,  the  blasphemies 
of  atheism,  the  cries  of  the  dying  and  the  agonized  convulsions 
of  outraged  innocence ;  it  is  by  the  light  of  incendiary  conflagra- 
tions, on  the  debris  of  the  throne  and  of  the  altars,  stained  by  the 
blood  of  the  best  of  kings  and  an  innumerable  host  of  other  victims ; 
it  is  in  disregard  of  evils  and  in  defiance  of  the  public  faith ;  it  is 
in  the  midst  of  all  conceivable  crimes,  that  your  seducers  and  your 
tyrants  have  founded  what  they  call  your  liberty.136 

De  Maistre's  counter-Revolutionary  political  philosophy  was 
all  the  more  influential,  and  is  all  the  more  significant  in  the 
present  study,  because  he  coupled  with  it  a  firm  belief  in  the 
social  value  of  the  Gospel.137 

During  the  period  of  the  Restoration  (1814-1830),  the  favors 
granted  to  the  Church  by  Louis  XVIII  and  Charles  X  encour- 
aged the  monarchist  sympathies  of  many  French  Catholics.138 
Louis  XVIIFs  government  maintained  Catholic  Christianity 
as  the  state  religion;139  it  repealed  the  divorce  law  (1816)  ;  14° 
it  forbade  the  press  to  attack  the  state  religion  (i822);141 
tinder  Charles  X  ( 1824-1830)  a  law  was  enacted  making  sacri- 
lege punishable  by  death;142  both  monarchs  favored  the  reli- 
gious orders  and  religious  education.143  That  influential  Cath- 
olic writers,  such  as  Mgr.  Frayssinous  144  and  the  Vicomte  de 
Bonald,145  should  have  extolled  the  monarchy  was  inevitable, 
under  the  circumstances. 

Nevertheless,  an  anti-monarchical  tendency  began  to  manifest 


30  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

itself  during  the  second  quarter  of  the  century.  Chateaubriand, 
whose  name  has  already  been  mentioned,  on  a  preceding  page, 
in  connection  with  Social  Catholicism,  was  during  his  early  life 
conspicuous  as  a  royalist;  but  in  1824  even  he  quarrelled  with 
the  king,  was  dismissed,  and  became  a  critic  of  the  government ; 
he  refused  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Louis  Philippe, 
when  the  latter  ascended  the  throne  in  1830;  and  the  conviction 
grew  upon  him  that  "  Royalty  and  aristocracy  are  things  of  the 
past ;  they  are  not  vital ;  the  democratic  idea  grows,  equality 
increases ;  the  sapper  is  at  work  under  the  thrones."  14e 

Louis  Veuillot,  another  of  the  writers  we  have  mentioned 
as  a  precurser  of  Social  Catholicism,  was  like  Chateaubriand 
a  monarchist  by  predilection.  And  like  Chateaubriand,  he  too 
felt  conscious  of  the  uneasy  stirrings  of  the  democratic  spirit 
of  the  age.  In  his  more  optimistic  moments,  he  dreamed  of 
the  day  when  a  "  baptized  democracy,"  friendly  to  the  Church, 
would  organize  a  European  confederation  of  republics  under 
the  presidency  of  the  pope.  "  There  will  be  a  Holy  Roman 
Democracy,"  he  prophesied,  "  as  there  has  been  a  Holy  Roman 
Empire."  147  Veuillot,  however,  was  an  opportunist  rather  than 
a  convinced  democrat  in  politics;  with  him,  the  interests  of 
religion  transcended  in  importance  all  merely  political  ques- 
tions. Hence  we  shall  find  him,  at  the  time  of  the  revolution 
of  1848,  giving  his  adherence  to  the  provisional  republican 
government,  because  that  government  seemed  favorably  dis- 
posed toward  the  Church,  and  on  the  other  hand  we  shall  find 
him  supporting  the  Emperor  Napoleon  III,  and  declaring, 
"  France  will  reject  parliamentarism  as  she  has  rejected  Prot- 
estantism, or  will  perish  in  the  attempt  to  vomit  it.  ...  The 
nation  has  said  to  a  man:  My  orators  tire  me,  rid  me  of 
them  and  govern  me."  148 

Veuillot,  therefore,  can  hardly  be  taken  as  a  protagonist  of 
the  democratic  school  of  Catholic  social  reformers.  His  flirta- 
tions with  democracy  in  the  period  1838-1848  are  interesting 
merely  as  a  sign  of  the  times. 

Probably  the  most  powerful  impulse  toward  political  liberal- 
ism came  from  two  men  who  cannot  be  classed  as  Catholic 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       31 

social  reformers,  namely,  de  Tocqueville  and  Lamennais. 
Alexis  de  Tocqueville  was  not  a  devout  Catholic  himself,149  but 
in  his  famous  study  of  Democracy  in  America,  first  published 
in  1835-1840,  he  maintained  a  thesis  which  gave  French  cler- 
icals much  food  for  thought.  Political  liberty  and  the  separa- 
tion of  the  Church  and  state  in  America  had  not  prevented  the 
Catholic  Church  from  flourishing,  nor  was  Catholicism  the 
enemy  of  democracy.  On  the  contrary,  he  said,  the  Catholics 
"  constitute  the  most  republican  and  the  most  democratic  class 
in  the  United  States."  Religion  and  liberty  were  found  in 
alliance  rather  than  in  opposition.  Generalizing  from  his  ob- 
servations, de  Tocqueville  concluded  that  "  the  Catholic  religion 
has  erroneously  been  regarded  as  the  natural  enemy  of  democ- 
racy," whereas  in  reality,  it  was  the  most  favorable  of  all  the 
Christian  religions  to  the  equality  of  men.  Moreover,  democ- 
racy had  need  of  religion.  "  Despotism  may  govern  without 
faith  but  liberty  cannot."  15° 

Felicite  Robert  de  Lamennais  has  not  been  classed  with  the 
Social  Catholics,  because,  finding  it  impossible  to  reconcile  his 
political  philosophy  with  Catholicism,  he  repudiated  the  latter. 
Prior  to  his  breach  with  the  Church,  however,  de  Lamennais 
had  won  many  converts  to  his  faith  that  Christianity  and 
democracy  were  reconcilable,  and  had  formed  a  band  of  ardent 
followers  and  collaborators  —  generally  known  as  "  Liberal 
Catholics  "  —  many  of  whom  remained  within  the  Church  and 
continued-  to  exert  a  powerful  influence  in  the  direction  of 
political  democracy. 

Lamennais  had  become  prominent,  before  the  Revolution  of 
1830,  as  a  brilliant  apologist  of  Christianity,  a  defender  of 
papal  infallibility,  an  advocate  of  liberty.  "  You  tremble  before 
liberalism,"  wrote  Lamennais  in  1829.  "  Catholicize  it  and  so- 
ciety will  be  reborn."  151  A  group  of  able  disciples  —  Lacor- 
daire,152  de  Montalembert,  Gerbet,  de  Coux,  de  Salinis,  Cazales, 
Combalot,  Maurice  de  Guerin,  and  others  acknowledged  him 
as  their  leader,  and  as  the  future  "  O'Connell  of  France."  153 

The  July  Revolution  of  1830  gave  Lamennais  and  his  fol- 
lowers their  opportunity.  For  the  Catholics  of  France  it  was 


32  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

no  longer  a  question  of  choosing  between  an  existing  conserva- 
tive Bourbon  monarch  whom  they  considered  friendly  to  the 
Church,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  a  possible  experiment  with 
democracy.  The  conservative  Bourbon  monarchy  had  failed. 
It  was  now  a  forlorn  hope.  The  choice  was  henceforth  be- 
tween a  Liberal  constitutional  monarchy,  resting  upon  com- 
promise with  the  principles  of  the  hated  Revolution,  and  dis- 
tinctly unfavorable  to  the  claims  of  the  Church,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  an  attempt  to  establish  a  Christian  democracy. 
Louis  Philippe's  government  was  most  unacceptable.  Catholi- 
cism, by  the  Charter  of  1830,  was  designated  as  the  religion 
"  professed  by  the  majority  of  Frenchmen,"  not  as  the  religion 
of  the  state.  Freedom  of  worship  was  proclaimed.  The  num- 
ber of  ecclesiastical  holidays  was  reduced.  The  pope  was 
no  longer  to  be  represented  by  a  nuncio  in  France.  A 
Protestant,  Guizot,  was  brought  into  the  ministry ; 154  the  state 
assistance  formerly  given  to  ecclesiastical  students  was  dis- 
continued.155 

Lamennais  and  his  associates  seized  the  occasion  to  launch 
a  vigorous  democratic  and  Catholic  campaign.  In  October, 
1830,  they 156  founded  a  journal,  for  which  they  chose  the 
suggestive  title,  The  Future  (L'Avenir},  and  the  motto,  "  God 
and  Liberty  " ;  in  its  columns  they  boldly  proclaimed  their  faith 
in  democracy  and  Christianity,  in  the  pope  and  the  people.157 
The  franchise,  .declared  L'Avenir,  should  be  "  extended  to  the 
masses."  158  Belgium,  Ireland,  and  Poland  were  pointed  out 
as  countries  where  the  cause  of  the  Church  was  the  cause  of 
liberty  and  of  democracy.  The  galling  fire  of  L'Avenir's  crit- 
icism, directed  now  against  the  monarchy,  now  against  the 
ministry,  now  against  Conservatives,  now  against  Gallican 
opponents  of  the  papacy,159  brought  down  upon  the  heads  of 
the  editors  the  heavy  displeasure  of  the  government.  More 
than  once  haled  into  court,  the  editors  defended  themselves 
with  such  eloquence  that  they  obtained  a  triumphant  acquit- 
tal.160 

More  serious  than  the  hostility  of  the  government,  as  events 
proved,  was  the  opposition  of  conservative  bishops  to  the  cam- 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       33 

paign  conducted  by  L'Avenir.  Certain  of  the  bishops,  still 
clinging  to  the  Gallican  idea  of  a  French  national  church,  shel- 
tered by  the  French  national  monarchy,  found  L'Avenir  both 
too  Roman  (in  its  exaltation  of  papal  authority)  and  too  liberal 
(in  its  advocacy  of  freedom  of  the  press,  etc.)  for  comfort. 
Moreover,  the  journal  was  sowing  a  whirlwind  of  controversy. 
Many  bishops,  therefore,  forbade  their  clergy  to  read 
L'Avenir.^  The  orthodoxy  of  the  Liberal  Catholic  movement 
fell  under  suspicion. 

Consequently,  at  Lacordaire's  suggestion,  the  three  princi- 
pal editors  —  Lamennais,  Lacordaire,  and  Montalembert  —  in 
November,  1831,  decided  upon  a  pilgrimage  to  Rome  to  obtain 
the  sanction  of  the  pope  for  their  teachings.  Gregory  XVI 
received  the  three  pilgrim  journalists  with  courtesy,  but  gave 
no  sign  of  approving  their  doctrines.162  After  some  delay  the 
pope  issued  an  Encyclical  Letter,  Mirari  Vos,  August  15,  1832, 
condemning  the  doctrine  that  the  Church  had  need  of  regenera- 
tion or  modernization,  denying  that  freedom  of  conscience  and 
liberty  of  the  press  were  unqualified  rights,  and  reproving  those 
who  incited  peoples  to  revolt  against  their  princes.163  Although 
the  pope  had  tactfully  avoided  mentioning  their  names,  the 
three  editors  could  hardly  have  mistaken  his  intention.164  They 
promptly  published  a  declaration  that,  in  deference  to  the  pope, 
they  would  abandon  the  publication  of  L'Avenir. ,165  Lamen- 
nais, profoundly  disappointed  and  humiliated,  gradually  aban- 
doned his  ecclesiastical  functions,  discontinued  all  outward  pro- 
fession of  Catholic  Christianity,  and  ended  by  denouncing  the 
clergy  along  with  the  kings  as  conspirators  against  the  people.166 
His  repudiation  of  Catholicism  brought  the  Liberal  Catholic 
movement  into  further  disrepute. 

Far  from  following  the  example  set  by  Lamennais,  Lacor- 
daire and  Montalembert  remained  zealous  Catholics  and  at  the 
same  time  preserved  their  belief  that  political  liberty  could  and 
should  be  christianized.  Both  became,  however,  more  and  more 
moderate  in  their  political  liberalism.  Perhaps  for  this  very 
reason,  they  were  able  to  exert  greater  influence  upon  the  con- 
servatives. Montalembert,  the  younger  of  the  two,  organized  a 


34  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

powerful  Catholic  political  movement  and  led  a  vigorous  cam- 
paign for  liberty  of  religious  education  and  liberty  of  associa- 
tion.167 Even  Veuillot's  Univers,  the  most  influential  conser- 
vative Catholic  organ,  seemed  to  be  persuaded,  at  one  time, 
that  liberty  of  the  press,  of  education,  of  worship,  was  desir- 
able.168 

The  Revolution  of  1848,  which  overthrew  Louis  Philippe, 
again  found  Lacordaire  and  Montalembert  prominent  in  the 
liberal  movement.  Montalembert  declared  that  the  Catholics 
were  "  ready  to  descend  into  the  arena,  with  all  their  fellow- 
citizens,  to  claim  all  the  political  and  social  liberties."  169  But 
his  conception  of'  political  and  social  liberties  was  relatively 
narrow,  and  he  soon  fell  to  quarrelling  with  the  more  demo- 
cratic Catholic  leaders. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1848  he  attacked  the  tendency  to  "  con- 
fuse socialism  with  democracy  and  democracy  with  Christi- 
anity,"—  a  tendency  to  which  the  democratic  Catholic  organ 
L'Ere  Nouvelle  had  been,  in  his  judgment,  all  too  prone.  Mon- 
talembert's  hostile  attitude  was  characterized  by  his  former  inti- 
mate associate,  Lacordaire,  in  these  caustic  sentences : 

M.  de  Montalembert  ...  is  destroying  with  his  own  hands  the 
edifice  which  represents  his  life-work,  and  he  is  preparing  the  way 
for  calamities  which  will  make  him  tremble,  later  on.  He  and  his 
friends  have  employed  against  the  Ere  Nouvelle  an  even  more  odious 
tactic  than  was  employed  against  the  Av.enir.  They  have  wittingly 
diverted  attention  from  the  true  point  of  the  question,  in  order  to 
persuade  their  readers  that  the  £re  Nouvelle  was  a  revolutionary, 
demagogic,  socialist  journal;  they  have  suppressed  or  denatured  the 
replies  made  to  their  attacks,  concealing  their  silence  now  by  hypo- 
critical manoeuvres,  now  by  calculated  assaults.  I  have  never  seen 
anything  which  seemed  to  me  further  from  fairness.  So  the  separa- 
tion is  complete  and  irremediable.170 

As  for  Lacordaire,  who  during  the  interval  between  1832 
and  1848  had  become  a  celebrated  preacher  and  had  reestab- 
lished the  Dominican  Order  in  France,  an  opportunity  for 
liberal  service  soon  offered  itself.  Not  long  after  the  Febru- 
ary Revolution  of  1848,  Maret,  a  priest  who  believed  in  "  a 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       35 

decided,  frankly-avowed  alliance  with  democracy,"  and  in  "  a 
true  and  pacific  socialism,"  came  with  Frederic  Ozanam,  the 
founder  of  the  Society  of  Saint  Vincent-de-Paul,  to  ask  Lacor- 
daire  to  enter  the  lists  once  more,  as  in  1831,  for  the  defense 
of  religion  and  liberty.171  Yielding  to  their  persuasion,  Lacor- 
daire  launched  a  new  journal.172  The  prospectus,  published  on 
March  I,  1848,  and  signed  by  Lacordaire,  Maret,  Ozanam, 
Charles  de  Coux,173  and  others,  announced  that  the  purpose 
was  to  reconcile  religion  and  the  democratic  Republic,  to  de- 
mand from  the  Republic  liberty  of  education,  liberty  of  asso- 
ciation, amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  workingmen,  and 
protection  of  "  the  peoples  who  have  lost  their  nationality 
by  unjust  conquests  which  time  cannot  rectify,  and  those  other 
peoples  which,  following  our  example  from  afar,  aspire  to 
achieve  their  own  political  and  moral  emancipation."  174  The 
very  title  of  Laconlaire's  new  organ  — "  The  New  Era " 
(L'£re  Nouvelle)  — was  eloquent  of  hope  and  confidence.175 

It  is  significant  that  among  Lacordaire's  associates  on  The 
New  Era  was  Frederic  Ozanam,  whose  pronounced  social 
views  have  been  adverted  to  in  the  preceding  section  of  this 
chapter.  Perhaps  more  clearly  than  any  other  man  of  his 
generation,  Ozanam  perceived  the  opportunity  for  the  Catholic 
Church  to  become  the  protectress  of  the  common  people  in 
both  economic  and  political  life.  Again  and  again  he  exhorted 
his  fellow-Catholics  to  interest  themselves  in  the  masses,  as  the 
medieval  Church  had  interested  itself  in  the  conversion  and 
civilization  of  the  barbarians.  "  Let  us  go  over  to  the  bar- 
barians," he  cried.176  Being  an  historian,  Ozanam  formulated 
a  historical  theory  of  political  evolution :  "  all  that  I  know  of 
history,"  he  declared,  "  gives  me  reason  to  believe  that  democ- 
racy is  the  natural  goal  of  political  progress  and  that  God  is 
guiding  the  world  towards  democracy."  177 

The  optimism  of  the  editors  of  The  New  Era  seemed  justi- 
fied by  events  when,  in  the  elections  of  April  23,  1848,  Lacor- 
daire, three  bishops,  ten  other  ecclesiastics,  and  a  strong  body  of 
Catholic  laymen  were  elected  to  the  National  Assembly.  The 
white-robed  figure  of  Lacordaire,  sitting  on  the  Extreme  Left, 


36  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

was  loudly  acclaimed.     It  was  a  token  of  the  anticipated  alli- 
ance of  Catholicism  and  democracy.178 

Even  more  conspicuous  than  Lacordaire,  in  the  Revolution  of 
1848,  was  Alphonse  de  Lamartine,  a  Catholic  litterateur  and 
politician,  who  had  slowly  gravitated  from  moderate  royalism,  in 
the  'thirties,  to  democratic  republicanism,  in  the  'forties,  and 
whose  declamatory  History  of  the  Girondins  (1847),  glorifying 
moderate  revolutionary  principles,  had  done  much  to  stimulate 
the  liberal  movement.  Lamartine  was  the  most  conspicuous  of 
the  parliamentary  leaders  in  the  revolution  of  1848;  it  was  he 
that  proclaimed  the  provisional  government ;  in  the  new  repub- 
lican cabinet  he  held  the  post  of  foreign  minister;  it  was  the 
magic  of  Lamartine's  eloquence  that  on  more  than  one  occasion 
saved  the  new  republic  from  falling  a  prey  to  mob  violence.179 
The  spirit  of  Lamartine's  political  and  social  philosophy  may 
be  caught  from  the  following  passage,  brief  as  it  is,  which  he 
penned  in  1849. 

The  two  great  and  the  richest  conquests  are,  in  politics,  the  sover- 
eignty of  all,  exercised  through  universal  suffrage,  and  in  morality, 
the  right  of  every  one  to  the  providence  of  all,  the  right  to  assist- 
ance by  means  of  work  or  by  state-aid.  .  .  .  Death  from  poverty  or 
hunger  is  then  banished  from  our  economic  laws,  as  death  by  the 
political  scaffold  is  banished  from  our  revolutionary  laws.  .  .  . 
Transport  the  infinite  charity  of  Christianity  from  the  conscience 
of  the  individual  into  the  conscience  of  governments,  and  you  will 
have  created  the  Republic  imperishable,  for  you  will  have  incor- 
porated into  your  government  all  that  the  age  contains  of  truth  and 
all  that  the  Gospel  contains  of  charity.180 

So  general  and  so  spontaneous  was  the  acceptance  of  the 
new  regime  by  the  Catholics,  that  the  alliance  between  the 
French  Church  and  democracy  seemed  on  the  point  of  being 
realized.  Even  conservatives  like  Louis  Veuillot  urged  accept- 
ance of  the  provisional  government  and  declared  that  the 
Catholics  would  make  the  most  sincere  republicans.181  The 
papal  nuncio  at  Paris  entered  into  diplomatic  relations  with  the 
government  and  assured  its  leaders  that  the  pope  would  approve 
their  action.182 


DEMOCRATIC  SOCIAL  PROGRAM  IN  THE  MAKING       37 

The  year  1848  marked  the  climax  of  the  first  stage  in  the 
development  of  the  Catholic  democratic  or  liberal  movement  in 
France.  It  also  marked  a  climax  in  the  development  of  Social 
Catholicism.  For,  as  the  reader  has  undoubtedly  inferred  from 
the  fact  that  many  of  the  men  mentioned  in  the  second  section 
of  this  chapter  as  Social  Catholics  appear  in  the  present  section 
as  democrats,  the  Catholic  democratic  and  social  movements 
had  tended  to  merge.  The  New  {Era,  championing  democracy, 
was  also  the  advocate  of  social  reform.  In  their  prospectus, 
March  i,  1848,  the  editors  declared, 

We  regard  with  sorrow  the  moral  and  physical  afflictions  of  so 
many  of  our  brothers  who  bear,  in  this  world  here  below,  the 
heaviest  portion  of  the  common  labor,  a  portion  rendered  more  bur- 
densome than  ever  by  the  very  development  of  industry  and  of 
civilization.  We  do  not  consider  these  evils  impossible  of  remedy. 
.  .  .  We  look  to  the  Republic,  and  rightfully  so,  to  employ  its  power 
in  alleviating  the  sufferings  of  the  majority  of  its  children.183 

This  is  a  thoroughgoing  acceptance  of  the  two  principles 
upon  which  the  idea  of  modern  social  politics  rests,  namely,  the 
need  of  reforms  in  the  interest  of  the  laboring  classes,  and 
the  acceptance  of  political  democracy  as  the  instrument  of  such 
reforms.  The  two  essential  foundation-stones  of  democratic 
Social  Catholicism  had  been  laid. 


CHAPTER  II 

MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM 
1848-1870 

POLITICAL  REACTION 

THE  New  Era  was  not  as  close  at  hand  as  Lacordaire,  Oza- 
nam  and  their  associates  of  1848  had  dreamed.  The  demo- 
cratic and  social  movement  which  had  made  such  rapid  prog- 
ress among  French  Catholics  from  1830  to  1848  was  violently 
interrupted  at  this  point.  During  the  period  from  1848  to 
1870,  while  a  few  indomitable  optimists  held  fast  to  the  program 
of  the  earlier  period,  the  more  influential  Catholic  intellectuals 
showed  a  preference  for  a  less  advanced  program.  In  politics 
and  in  economics  alike  the  reactionary  tendency  was  so  strong 
that  it  left  a  deep  impress  upon  the  body  of  ideas  which  was 
to  form  the  heritage  of  the  later  Social  Catholic  movement 
under  the  Third  Republic. 

In  its  political  aspects,  the  aftermath  of  the  Revolution  of 
1848  brought,  instead  of  triumph,  a  grievous  disillusionment 
for  the  group  of  Catholic  democrats.  To  begin  with,  the  re- 
publican National  Assembly  elected  in  May,  1848,  thoroughly 
out  of  sympathy  with  socialistic  experiments,  decided  to  sup- 
press the  "  national  workshops  "  184  which  had  been  instituted 
by  the  provisional  government.  Thereupon  the  workingmen 
in  the  eastern  part  of  the  city  grew  rebellious,  erected  barri- 
cades, and  demanded  the  dissolution  of  the  Assembly.  Rather 
than  yield,  the  Assembly  sent  General  Cavaignac  with  armed 
forces  to  quell  the  disturbance.  The  Archbishop  of  Paris,  Mgr. 
Afire,  who  rushed  to  the  barricades  in  the  vain  hope  of  restor- 
ing peace,  was  mortally  wounded ;  his  death  seemed  to  sym- 
bolize the  tragic  failure  of  Christian  intervention  in  the  struggle 
for  democracy.185  The  bloody  conflict  that  ensued  in  the  streets 

38 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870       39 

of  Paris  during  the  terrible  "  June  Days  "  (June  23-26), 186  re- 
sulted in  the  triumph  of  General  Cavaignac,  but  it  rendered 
illusory  any  hope  of  founding  a  democratic  government  upon 
the  basis  of  fraternal  accord  and  good-will.187 

Disappointments  for  the  Catholic  democrats  followed  thick 
and  fast.  In  the  presidential  elections  of  December,  1848,  La- 
martine,  who  had  run  as  a  republican  candidate,  obtained  only 
a  few  thousand  votes,  while  the  Bonapartist  pretender,  Prince 
Louis  Napoleon,  posing  as  a  republican,  by  clever  electioneering 
secured  the  great  majority  of  the  Catholic  votes,  and  won  an 
overwhelming  victory.  The  Catholic  democrats  of  the  New 
Era  group  steadfastly  opposed  Louis  Napoleon's  candidacy,  but 
their  voice  was  not  heard.188 

While  Louis  Napoleon  was  transforming  the  Second  Repub- 
lic into  the  Second  Empire  he  continued  to  enjoy  strong 
Catholic  support.189  The  reason  for  this  support  is  not  far 
to  seek. 

In  the  first  place,  the  revolutionary  movement  of  1848  had 
demonstrated  that  democracy  was  a  dangerous  experiment, 
fraught  with  perils  of  civil  strife;  the  revolutionary  disturb- 
ances had  given  socialistic  extremists  an  opportunity  to  assert 
themselves  in  Paris ;  moreover,  in  France  and  elsewhere  the 
democratic  uprising  had  been  followed  by  demonstrations  of 
an  alarming  anti-clerical  spirit.190  In  Italy,  Pius  IX  had  been 
compelled  to  flee  from  the  papal  states,  and  a  republic  had  been 
established  in  Rome.191 

On  the  other  hand,  Louis  Napoleon  skilfully  taught  the 
Catholics  to  look  to  him  as  a  powerful  friend  and  protector. 
When  the  pope  appealed  to  the  Catholic  powers  for  aid  against 
the  Roman  revolutionists,  Louis  Napoleon's  government  dis- 
patched a  French  military  expedition  to  restore  the  papal  gov- 
ernment at  Rome.192  Hardly  less  gratifying  to  French  Cath- 
olics was  the  educational  reform  put  through  under  Louis 
Napoleon's  presidency.  In  January,  1849,  Louis  Napoleon's 
minister  of  education,  M.  Falloux,  created  two  extra-parlia- 
mentary commissions  on  primary  and  secondary  education,  and 
appointed  some  of  the  most  prominent  clericals, — notably  Mon- 


40  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

talembert,  de  Melun  and  Abbe  Dupanloup, —  as  members.  The 
investigation  led  to  the  enactment  of  the  important  Educational 
Law  (the  Falloux  Law)  of  1850,  which  permitted  the 
Catholics  to  establish  "  free  "  or  private  primary  and  secondary 
schools,  in  competition  with  the  public  schools.  Priests  were 
not  required  to  show  certificates  of  capacity  ordinarily  required 
of  teachers  in  primary  schools.  In  each  canton,  the  ministers 
of  the  different  religions  were  to  supervise  the  religious  instruc- 
tion, which  was  included  as  part  of  the  official  curriculum  of 
primary  education.  General  advisory  powers  were  given  to  a 
Superior  Council,  whose  membership  included  representatives, 
among  others,  of  the  clergy  and  of  the  free  schools.  As  a  re- 
sult of  this  law,  257  new  Catholic  schools  were  founded  within 
two  years ;  52  state  lycees  were  closed ;  and  the  religious  orders 
greatly  increased  their  educational  activities.  Thus  an  issue 
which  had  long  been  the  subject  of  bitter  controversy  under 
Louis  Philippe  was  settled  under  Louis  Napoleon  in  a  manner 
very  favorable  to  Catholic  interests.193 

A  majority  of  Catholic  leaders  were  therefore  quite  willing 
to  acquiesce  in  the  coup  d'etat  of  1851  which,  while  restoring 
universal  suffrage,  instituted  a  plebiscite  on  the  proposition  of 
granting  to  Louis  Napoleon  the  power  to  draw  up  a  new  con- 
stitution. Montalembert  exhorted  Catholics  to  vote  for  the 
revision. 

To  vote  for  Louis  Napoleon,  is  it  not  equivalent  to  voting  for 
all  that  he  has  done,  choosing  between  him  and  the  total  ruin  of 
France?  ...  I  recall  the  great  religious  reforms  which  have  signal- 
ized his  government :  liberty  of  the  press  guaranteed ;  the  pope 
reestablished  by  French  arms ;  the  Church  restored  to  possession 
of  her  councils,  her  synods,  the  plenitude  of  her  dignity,  and  wit- 
nessing the  gradual  increase  in  the  number  of  her  colleges,  her 
communities,  her  works  of  salvation  and  charity.  I  seek  in  vain 
for  any  other  system  which  can  guarantee  for  us  the  conservation 
and  development  of  like  benefits.  .  .  .194 

Veuillot,  the  great  clerical  journalist,  repeated  in  other  words 
the  same  eulogy  of  Napoleon.195 

Under  the  new  constitution  promulgated  by  Napoleon  in 
January,  1852,  the  president's  term  of  office  was  lengthened 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870          41 

to  ten  years,  the  ministry  was  responsible  to  him  alone,  and,  in 
effect,  a  monarchical  government  was  established  under  repub- 
lican forms.  On  December  2,  1852,  the  final  step  was  taken, 
when,  having  secured  authorization  by  a  plebiscite  (November), 
Napoleon  assumed  the  title  and  powers  of  emperor. 

During  the  first  few  years  of  the  Empire,  the  Church  con- 
tinued to  enjoy  favor  with  the  government.  The  bishops  were 
free  to  hold  provincial  councils  and  to  communicate  with  the 
pope ;  pensions  were  provided  for  aged  and  infirm  priests,  and 
the  salaries  of  the  bishops  were  increased ;  French  cardinals 
were  ex  officio  members  of  the  senate;  public  affronts  to  re- 
ligion were  punished ;  religious  orders  were  allowed  to  expand ; 
negotiations  were  opened  for  modification  of  the  Organic  Arti- 
cles, which  had  been  so  distasteful  to  ultramontanes.  Con- 
sequently, the  Empire  continued  to  enjoy  Catholic  support, 
although  a  few  Catholic  leaders  still  cherished  democratic  ideas. 
The  Catholic  group  in  the  national  legislature  dwindled  away, 
as  its  members  identified  themselves  with  other  parties. 
Patriotism,  economic  interests,  and  gratitude  for  favors  granted 
to  the  Church  obscured  the  issue  between  democracy  and  mon- 
archy.198 

Under  these  circumstances,  the  Catholic  democratic  move- 
ment failed  to  find  new  leaders,  while  its  former  champions 
dropped  away  one  by  one.  Ozanam  died  in  1853.  Lacordaire, 
after  making  a  strenuous  attack  on  the  Bonaparte  government, 
turned  from  political  to  ecclesiastical  affairs.197  The  New  Era 
ceased  publication.  Montalembert,  to  be  sure,  lost  his  en- 
thusiasm for  Louis  Napoleon,  as  the  illiberal  character  of  the 
Empire  became  manifest;  he  persistently  attacked  the  govern- 
ment and  advocated  liberty,  but  not  in  a  very  democratic 
sense.198 

Moreover,  a  certain  amount  of  support  was  given  by  Mgr. 
Dupanloup,  Bishop  of  Orleans,  who,  although  he  himself  was 
disposed  in  favor  of  a  liberal  monarchy,  contended  that  the 
Church  was  not  interested  in  maintaining  a  particular  form  of 
government,  but  merely  desired  that  the  government  should 
be  Christian.199  But  the  liberalism  of  Montalembert  and  Du- 


42  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

panloup  failed  to  find  general  favor.  And  the  reactionary 
tendency  received  a  very  powerful  stimulus  from  the  Syllabus 
of  Errors  (1864),  in  which  Pius  IX  condemned  many  popular 
conceptions  of  liberalism.200  So  weak  had  the  democratic  idea 
become  that,  when  in  the  later  years  of  his  reign  Louis  Na- 
poleon became  less  friendly  to  clerical  interests,  no  strong  re- 
publican movement  arose  among  French  Catholics.  Some  who 
were  dissatisfied  with  Napoleon  III  looked  to  the  Legitimist 
pretender,  the  Count  de  Chambord,  for  the  salvation  of  France. 
Democracy  was  far  from  their  thoughts.201 

In  short,  the  democratic  tendency  of  French  Catholics  was 
checked,  was  even  reversed.  This  change  made  it  highly  prob- 
able that  Social  Catholicism  would  be  linked  up  with  an  un- 
democratic political  philosophy,  and  would  be  seriously  em- 
barrassed thereby  when  democracy  finally  triumphed  in  France. 

AN  ADVOCATE  OF  SOCIAL  LEGISLATION 

Although  the  political  reaction  was  closely  followed  by  a 
movement  of  social  reaction,  there  arose,  before  the  latter 
carried  all  before  it,  an  influential  Catholic  advocate  of  social 
legislation,  whose  ideas  and  achievements  demand  some  con- 
sideration. The  work  of  Vicomte  Armand  de  Melun  in  the 
years  1849-1851  represents  a  transitional  stage  from  the  demo- 
cratic and  liberal  reforming  spirit  of  1848  to  the  conservatism 
of  the  Second  Empire. 

The  Revolution  of  1848  had  found  Melun  busily  engaged  in 
charity  organization  and  social  service  work.  Through  his 
review,  the  Annales  de  la  charite,  through  his  national  organ- 
ization, the  Society  of  Charitable  Economy,  through  his  Inter- 
national Association  for  Charity,  and  through  the  charity  or- 
ganization committee  (Comite  des  cewvres},  he  inspired  and 
directed  the  social  service  movement  of  the  period  in  both  its 
theoretical  and  its  practical  developments.202 

Though  a  Legitimist  by  family  tradition,  he  welcomed  the 
February  Revolution  of  1848,  because  it  appeared  to  have 
brought  about  a  reconciliation  of  the  priest  and  the  working- 
man,  and  because  it  seemed  to  open  up  glorious  vistas  of  Chris- 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870          43 

tian  democracy.203  "  Events  have  outstripped  the  most  auda- 
cious thought,"  he  declared,  "  and  the  dream  of  a  few  has  be- 
conie  the  awakening  of  all."  The  social  questions  formerly 
relegated  to  a  distant  future  for  settlement  now  demanded  an 
immediate  and  positive  solution.  "  Social  economy  "  had  in- 
augurated her  reign,  and  was  imposing  the  duty  of  solving  "  the 
most  terrible  problems."  "  Charitable  economy,  her  sister," 
he  added, 

more  modest,  and  too  often  charged  with  the  duty  of  picking  up 
the  dead  and  healing  the  wounded  who  have  fallen  on  the  battle- 
field of  society,  cannot  abandon  her  in  this  high  and  perilous 
position,  but  must  mount  the  throne  with  her,  share  her  labors,  and 
participate  in  her  rule ;  for,  in  the  government  of  human  affairs, 
in  the  study  and  solution  of  the  questions  which  are  now  the  order 
of  the  day,  charitable  economy  has  a  special  mission  to  fulfill.204 

Responding  to  Melun's  appeal,  the  Society  of  Charitable 
Economy  promptly  organized  five  sections  for  the  study  of  con- 
ditions among  the  poorer  classes,  and  a  special  committee  to 
prepare  a  comprehensive  plan  for  the  general  organization  of 
public  assistance.205  Melun  himself,  meanwhile,  persuaded  the 
wives  of  the  members  of  the  provisional  government  to  form  a 
Fraternal  Association  in  favor  of  the  poor.208  He  also  urged 
Lamartine  and  other  friends  to  bring  to  the  attention  of  the 
Constituent  Assembly  a  project  to  "  base  all  public  charity  on 
the  principle  of  fraternity,  and  realize  the  thought  we  have 
so  often  discussed,  the  union  of  the  state  with  private  charity." 
Lamartine  took  great  interest  in  the  scheme,  but  procrastinated, 
and  the  only  result  was  discouragement  for  Melun.207 

Perhaps  because  he  was  more  interested  in  practical  chari- 
table work  than  in  social  or  political  theories,  Melun  was  not 
crushed  in  spirit  by  the  failure  of  the  "  national  workshops  " 
(which  he  had  never  approved)  or  by  the  June  insurrection. 
In  fact,  his  political  career  did  not  begin  until  after  these 
events.  In  1849  ne  redoubled  his  efforts  to  persuade  the  gov- 
ernment to  aid  the  poor,  and  decided  to  present  himself  as  a 
candidate  for  the  Legislative  Assembly  in  order  that  he  might 
personally  work  for  the  realization  of  his  ideal.  Considering 


44  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

only  his  personal  convenience,  he  wrote  in  February,  1849,  ne 
would  not  seek  to  enter  parliament,  but  considering  the  need, 
he  could  not  hold  aloof.  He  said, 

I  tell  myself  every  day  that  there  is  a  great  work  to  be  done, 
the  consummation  of  all  my  achievements,  the  inauguration  of 
charity  in  politics,  the  reconciliation  of  rich  and  poor,  of  him  who 
possesses  and  him  who  suffers ;  and  it  is  only  from  the  height  of 
the  [legislative]  tribune,  and  through  legislation,  that  the  treaty  of 
peace  can  be  accepted ;  it  is  only  with  the  authority  of  universal 
suffrage  that  one  will  have  the  right  to  recall  the  causes  of  the  Feb- 
ruary revolution,  which  you  see  ...  so  nearly  forgotten.  .  .  ,208 

Such  ideas  inevitably  brought  down  upon  Melun's  head 
accusations  of  socialism,  so  strong  was  the  laissez-faire  spirit 
at  the  time.  His  own  reflection  on  the  accusations  is  worth 
quoting : 

Of  late  I  have  had  my  days  of  combat  and  almost  discourage- 
ment. I  had  published  separately  the  two  articles  which  appeared 
in  the  Annales  on  the  intervention  of  society  in  the  sphere  of 
charity ;  and  my  friends  the  Catholics,  those  for  whom  I  was 
working,  could  find  nothing  better  to  do  than  to  accuse  me  of 
socialism  and  to  put  my  work  on  the  index.  I  admit  that  I  was 
revolted  by  such  intolerance  and  by  so  small  an  understanding  of 
the  needs  and  duties  of  the  moment ;  and  I  was  tempted  to  despair 
of  the  aim  which  I  pursued,  on  seeing  those  who  should  have  sec- 
onded me  casting  stones  at  me ;  but  the  storm  quickly  passed,  public 
reason  came  to  my  aid,  and  today  even  the  extremists  recognize 
that  society  as  well  as  the  individual  must  be  charitable.209 

The  charges  of  socialism  were  certainly  absurd,  in  the  mod- 
ern sense  of  collectivism,  but  in  a  certain  sense,  the  accusation 
was  not  entirely  without  justification.  Melun's  conception  of 
social  intervention  in  economic  affairs  was  so  diametrically  op- 
posed to  the  accepted  doctrine  of  laissez-faire  that  it  might  well 
be  called  revolutionary.  Melun  himself  confessed, —  "  If  I  fol- 
lowed my  inclination,  in  two  years  I  would  be  anathematized 
as  a  socialist  and  repelled  as  a  revolutionist."  21° 

In  the  election  of  May,  1849,  ne  represented  himself  as  a 
champion  of  religion  and  of  order,  as  a  servant  of  the  cause 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870          45 

of  "  the  weakest  and  most  unfortunate  of  our  brothers." 211 
He  was  elected  by  a  large  majority. 

On  June  23,  1849,  he  asked  the  Assembly  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee of  thirty  members  to  study  the  question  of  public  as- 
sistance for  the  poor,  in  fulfilment  of  article  XIII  of  the 
constitution.212  The  task  of  the  committee  was  not  to  run 
through  the  whole  gamut  of  economic  questions,  from  tariffs  to 
trade  unions,  but  merely  to  consider  remedies  for  the  more 
obvious  sufferings  of  the  working-classes.  The  code  of  laws 
to  be  elaborated  by  the  commission,  should  "  enter  into  his 
home  with  the  workingman  to  render  his  lodging  more  sanitary, 
and  into  his  shop,  to  make  the  air  purer  and  the  work  less 
dangerous  and  more  healthful ;  [it  should]  facilitate  his  savings, 
encourage  his  thrift,  take  care  of  [him  in]  his  involuntary  idle- 
ness, concern  itself  with  his  sickness  and  infirmities,  and  not 
leave  him  without  support  in  the  sterile  and  often  friendless 
days  of  his  childhood  and  old  age."  213 

When  the  bill  came  up  for  debate,  July  9,  1849,  Victor  Hugo, 
though  intending  to  support  it,  stirred  up  opposition  by  his 
tactless  remarks;  but  when  the  debate  seemed  to  be  going 
against  him,  Melun  opportunely  intervened  with  a  graceful  ap- 
peal for  unanimity,  and  unanimity  he  secured.214  The  most 
eminent  leaders  in  the  house  were  appointed  to  the  committee 
of  thirty;  Thiers,  Montalembert,  Berryer,  Buffet,  Arago  were 
among  them.  A  Catholic  bishop,  Mgr.  Parisis,  was  chairman. 
Its  deliberations  lasted  years;  scores  of  pamphlets,  bills, 
schemes,  reports  were  considered ;  it  was  the  clearing-house  for 
the  social  legislation  of  the  day.215 

In  committee,  as  well  as  in  the  Legislative  Assembly 
(1849-51)  as  a  whole,  there  were  sharp  differences  of  opinion 
on  social  questions.  The  republican  extremists  of  socialistic 
tendency  were  a  negligible  minority.  The  conservative  major- 
ity was  divided.  One  wing,  of  which  Thiers  was  the  most  il- 
lustrious representative,  usually  opposed  social  legislation, 
whether  through  confidence  in  the  orthodox  economic  doc- 
trines of  non-intervention  and  laissez-faire,  or  through  an  in- 
tense fear  of  socialism,  or  through  solicitude  for  property- 


46  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

rights.  The  other  wing,  represented  by  Melun  and  by  other 
Catholic  deputies,  and  supported  by  the  Society  of  Charitable 
Economy,  desired  moderate  social  legislation.216  Melun  has  left 
us  a  vivid  picture  of  the  situation  in  the  committee.  In  one  of 
his  letters  he  tells  us  how  he  almost  dreaded  to  bring  any 
project  before  the  committee,  for  when  schemes  were  pro- 
posed, 

the  inexorable  logic  of  our  friend  the  ultra-economist,  M.  Buffet, 
opens  the  attack;  MM.  Randot,  de  Seze,  Bechard,  can  think  of 
nothing  but  exaggerated  decentralization;  the  excellent  bishop  of 
Langres  [Mgr.  Parisis,  chairman  of  the  committee]  says  a  word  or 
two  about  the  rights  of  private  charity  .  .  .  and  after  our  poor 
projects  have  been  riddled  from  every  side,  it  is  hard  to  save 
even  a  few  shreds  of  their  mutilated  articles.  Occasionally  M. 
Thiers  .  .  .  comes  to  our  aid;  more  often,  he  energetically  com- 
bats socialist  and  humanitarian  theories,  and  from  the  pinnacle 
of  his  eloquence  hurls  his  thunderbolts  at  Utopians  and  philan- 
thropists. On  those  days,  to  add  the  finishing  touch  to  our  de- 
feat, Emanuel  Arago  fa  Republican,  regarded  as  an  extremist] 
never  fails  to  defend  us,  and  the  committee,  frightened  by  our 
defenders  as  well  as  by  our  assailants,  adjourns  in  dismay  at 
the  evil  it  was  on  the  point  of  committing  in  doing  something 
.  .  .  Treated  as  a  socialist  by  the  majority  with  which  I  vote,  as 
a  philanthropic  idiot  by  the  great  politicians,  as  an  enemy  of  private 
and  religious  charity  by  the  bishops  and  the  Catholics,  I  am  never- 
theless held  responsible  by  many  for  the  inaction  of  the  committee, 
which  I  convoke  every  day  and  which  I  urge  forward  with  all  my 
strength.217 

Melun's  own  scheme  of  social  legislation,  which  he  would 
fain  have  induced  the  Committee  to  support,  was  set  forth  in 
a  pamphlet  on  "  The  Intervention  of  Society  to  Prevent  and 
Alleviate  Poverty"  (i849).218  He  wished  to  steer  a  middle 
course  between  socialism  and  laissez-faire.  Society,  he  said, 
should  be  neither  a  communistic  organization  blotting  out 
private  property  and  human  personality,  nor  a  "  heartless 
mechanism  "  leaving  each  individual  to  survive  or  perish  as 
best  he  might.  But  society  should  be  a  great  protective  asso- 
ciation, defending  the  workingman  against  ignorance,  sickness, 
vice,  poverty,  excessive  labor  and  unemployment, —  for  these 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870          47 

were  no  less  inimical  to  his  safety  and  happiness  than  theft  and 
murder,  to  suppress  which  everybody  admitted  to  be  the  duty 
of  the  state. 

To  wait  until  the  workingman  had  become  a  pauper,  or  was 
on  the  verge  of  starvation,  before  coming  to  his  relief,  was, 
in  Melun's  view,  the  most  short-sighted  of  policies.  An  ounce 
of  prevention  was  worth  a  pound  of  cure.  Social  legislation 
should  be  preventive  rather  than  merely  palliative. 

Melun's  scheme  for  the  prevention  of  poverty  was  compre- 
hensive, if  nothing  more.  Maternity  hospitals,  day-nurseries, 
orphan  asylums,  popular  education,  vocational  training,  welfare 
associations  for  young  workingmen, —  these  formed  but  part  of 
the  series  of  institutions  which  should  follow  the  workingman 
from  infancy  to  old  age,  offering  relief  to  the  unfortunate  and 
aid  to  all,  encouraging  thrift,  promoting  education,  alleviating 
distress.  These  manifold  agencies  should  be  coordinated  and 
fostered  by  a  supreme  council  appointed  by  the  National  As- 
sembly ;  —  perhaps  it  would  be  too  ambitious,  he  said,  to  de- 
mand a  special  minister  of  state  for  social  welfare.  Under  the 
central  council  would  be  formed  a  pyramidal  structure  of 
local  committees,  managing  public  institutions  for  poor  relief 
and  cooperating  with  private  charitable  enterprises.219  His 
fundamental  ideas  were  first,  that  the  state  should  supplement 
and  utilize  private  efforts  for  social  service,  rather  than  re- 
placing them,  and,  second,  that  the  vast  complex  of  public  and 
private  institutions  needed  to  be  coordinated. 

Furthermore,  Melun  desired  the  development  of  association 
among  employers  and  workingmen,  to  the  end  that  the  wage- 
system  might  'be  transformed  into  profit-sharing.  The  idea 
was  characteristic  of  the  period.  Cooperative  production  and 
profit-sharing  were  regarded  by  many  social  reformers  as 
panaceas.  Melun  did  not  go  quite  so  far ;  he  merely  recom- 
mended association  as  one  of  the  many  remedies. 

As  respects  labor  legislation  Melun  held  that  the  govern- 
ment had  the  right  and  the  duty  to  intervene  to  correct  the 
evils  of  industrial  competition.  "  When  competition  shows 
itself  inhumane  and  unfair,  if  it  crushes  the  child  and  the 


48  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

adult,"  he  declared,  social  legislation  must  be  adopted  to  pro- 
tect the  health  and  morals  of  the  young  worker ;  to  prevent  his 
being  employed  at  too  early  an  age,  or  before  he  has  had  an 
education ;  to  restrict  hours  of  labor ;  to  protect  the  adult 
laborer  against  unhealthful  shop  conditions,  dangerous  mechan- 
ical installations,  and  excessive  labor.  In  the  matter  of  unem- 
ployment, also,  society  must  intervene  to  protect  labor.  Fur- 
thermore, the  government  should  foster  insurance  against  old 
age,  but  without  instituting  compulsory  contributions  for  old 
age  pensions. 

Such  social  legislation,  Melun  believed,  would  involve  the 
establishment  of  a  protective  tariff  system  in  order  to  defend 
French  industries  against  competition  of  less  progressive  na- 
tions. It  also  would  involve  the  setting  up  of  international 
standards  for  labor.  Taking  a  glimpse  into  the  future,  he 
predicted  that  the  movement  then  afoot  in  many  countries  of 
Europe  "  will  not  permit  any  country  to  continue  abusing 
human  strength;  the  reduction  of  hours  will  become  general 
law."  Perhaps,  he  added,  it  would  even  be  necessary  to  re- 
quire that  employers  found  schools,  dispensaries,  institutions 
for  the  shelter  of  the  sick  and  the  aged,  and  old-age  pension 
funds.220 

Melun's  scheme  was  not  accepted  in  its  entirety  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  Thirty.  But  his  ideas  bore  fruit  in  a  number  of 
the  measures  which  the  committee  induced  the  Legislative  As- 
sembly to  adopt.  In  the  words  of  one  of  his  biographers, 

Fortunately  M.  de  Melun  was  charged  with  the  duty  of  reporting 
numerous  special  bills  to  the  Assembly,  and  his  friends  drafted, 
under  his  inspiration,  those  that  he  had  not  been  able  to  present 
himself.  Consequently,  the  Legislative  Assembly  in  its  session  of 
1850  was  able  to  vote,  successively,  a  law  on  insalubrious  dwell- 
ings,221 a  law  on  pension  funds,222  and  a  law  on  mutual  aid 
societies,223  as  well  as  a  law  on  the  education  and  guardianship 
of  juvenile  offenders.224 

The  committee  on  Assistance  [i.  e.,  the  Committee  of  Thirty] 
also  presented  a  bill  on  foundlings,  which  reestablished  the  found- 
ling depots;225  it  had  also  adopted  other  bills,  on  hospitals  and 
hospices,226  on  outdoor  relief,  on  medical  service  in  the  country, 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870         49 

on  apprenticeship,227  on  the  employment  of  women  and  children 
in  manufacturing  industries.228  Most  of  the  bills  had  been  pre- 
pared and  discussed  in  advance  by  the  Society  of  Charitable 
Economy  (founded  by  Melun).  .  .  .  229 

Melun  had  the  great  gratification  of  seeing  that  his  efforts 
in  their  behalf  were  appreciated  by  the  workingmen  themselves. 
In  May,  1851,  he  wrote: 

Already  the  workingmen  are  singularly  well  disposed  towards 
me,  and  boundlessly  grateful  for  the  good  I  have  not  yet  done 
them.  Saturday,  one  of  the  most  advanced  members  of  the  Moun- 
tain, strongly  opposed  to  the  majority,  announced  to  me  that  in 
the  day  of  the  people's  triumph  only  one  member  of  the  Right 
would  not  be  excluded  from  the  popular  unity.  It  was  I.  It 
seems  that  the  associations  [of  workingmen]  were  so  touched  by 
my  visit  that  my  name  is  never  pronounced  except  with  enthusiasm 
and  veneration.230 

Had  Melun  been  made  responsible  for  the  general  report  of 
the  Committee  of  Thirty  he  might  possibly  have  persuaded 
the  Legislative  Assembly  to  venture  further  in  the  path  of 
social  legislation  and  create  the  comprehensive  organization 
of  which  he  dreamed.  But  Thiers,  more  accomplished  as  a 
parliamentarian  and  as  a  writer,  was  chosen  to  make  the  general 
report.  The  document  prepared  by  Thiers  was  a  model  of 
literary  composition;  even  those  who  disagreed  with  his  con- 
clusions could  not  help  applauding  the  great  statesman's  felic- 
itous phrases.  But  Thiers  represented  the  non-intervention- 
ist tendency  and  his  voluminous  report  was  more  destructive 
than  constructive  in  tendency.  Caution  was  the  dominant 
theme.  "  The  state,  like  the  individual,"  said  Thiers,  "  should 
be  beneficent.  But,  like  the  individual,  it  should  do  so  as  a 
virtue,  that  is  to  say,  freely,  and,  moreover,  it  should  do  so 
prudently."  Among  the  really  novel  proposals  advanced  in 
recent  times  for  the  relief  of  poverty,  "  few  are  compatible  with 
respect  for  property,  for  individual  liberty,  for  the  public  for- 
tune." Many  were  "  chimerical  and  impracticable."  In  fact 
"  there  is  little  that  is  novel  to  be  done,  if  one  desires  to  keep 
within  the  limits  of  common  sense."  The  pretended  duty  of 


SO  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

the  state  to  assure  employment  to  workingmen  was  an  ab- 
surdity hardly  worthy  of  refutation.  Cooperative  production 
associations  would  mean  "  nothing  more  nor  less  than  anarchy 
in  industry,"  because  their  fatal  tendency  would  be  towards 
equal  division  of  profits,  which  would  result  in  "  the  stifling 
of  human  genius,"  and  the  workingmen  would  "  perish  by  suf- 
focation and  be  sacrificed  to  mediocrity."  Compulsory  in- 
surance against  old  age  was  out  of  the  question;  even  govern- 
ment contributions  to  voluntarily  established  old-age  pension 
funds  would  be  wrong  in  principle,  for, — 

in  all  these  systems  [of  social  insurance]  you  take  from  the  poor 
to  give  to  other  poor  people,  with  a  thousand  chances  of  being 
mistaken,  of  taking  from  the  thrifty  poor  to  give  to  the  improvident, 
taking  from  the  industrious  poor  to  give  to  the  shiftless, —  and 
one  has  no  right  to  do  that;  for,  after  all,  it  is  on  each  man's  own 
toil  that  his  fate  should  depend,  and  not  on  the  state.  .  .  ,231 

Melun's  comment  on  this  report  shows  the  gulf  that  lay 
between  the  two  men: 

It  was  a  veritable  volume,  such  as  one  might  expect  from  so 
ingenious  a  mind  and  so  accomplished  a  writer.  When  he  [Thiers] 
read  it  to  the  committee,  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  applaud  the 
felicitous  ideas,  the  charming  pages.  He  spoke  of  private  charity 
in  very  good  terms,  refuted  the  socialist  doctrines  very  clearly, 
held  up  schemes  of  universal  reform  to  ridicule ;  —  and  if  a  timid 
voice  raised  the  objection  that  although  he  had  combated  the 
panaceas  of  charlatans  very  ably,  it  would  perhaps  be  well  to  in- 
dicate some  better  remedies  for  evils  which  could  not  be  denied, 
he  fell  back  on  the  statement  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  find 
such  remedies,  and  that  it  was  necessary  for  poor  humanity  to  live 
with  its  maladies,  fearing  lest  it  kill  itself  in  attempting  a  cure.232 

Melun  ironically  remarked  that  he  feared  the  poor  would 
not  be  much  aided  by  "  this  voluminous  masterpiece."  "  The 
most  eloquent  pages  give  very  little  warmth  or  nourishment 
to  people  who  suffer  from  cold  and  hunger."  23S 

With  Louis  Napoleon's  coup  d'etat  of  December  2,  1851, 
Melun's  political  career  came  to  an  abrupt  end.  He  was 
among  those  who  were  imprisoned  for  raising  a  protest.  Upon 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870         51 

his  release,  he  retired  to  private  life.  Sceptical  and  distrustful 
toward  the  Second  Empire,  he  nevertheless  had  keen  enough 
an  insight  into  the  social  background  of  political  events  to 
write : 

In  representing  the  empire  as  the  perfection  of  the  republic  and 
the  consecration  of  democracy  and  of  universal  suffrage,  one 
responds  well  enough  to  the  instincts  of  the  working  class,  which, 
seeing  the  impossibility  and  the  vexatious  consequences  of  Louis 
Blanc's  doctrines,  prefers  the  emperor,  acclaimed  by  masses,  to  the 
monarch  by  divine  right  or  by  legal  claim.  The  liberties  which 
the  [new]  presidential  constitution  impairs  mean  little  to  the  laborer, 
and  democratic  tendencies  always  aim  toward  the  despotism  of  a 
man  or  of  a  convention.  The  people,  when  they  think  and  talk 
politics,  desire  above  all  that  authority  have  the  air  of  coming 
from  them.  .  .  .  They  do  not  care  much  for  offices;  three  years 
ago  it  was  very  difficult  to  persuade  them  to  elect  a  workingman 
among  their  representatives.  Louis  Napoleon  is  certainly  the  most 
popular,  the  least  bourgeois,  the  least  aristocratic  power  on  earth.234 

As  in  ensuing  years  he  witnessed  the  progress  of  political 
and  social  reaction,  the  growing  hostility  between  the  masses 
and  the  bourgeoisie,  he  became  more  and  more  pessimistic,  and 
looked  back  with  the  regret  of  disillusionment  to  the  time  when, 
in  his  own  words, 

I  had  faith  in  the  future  of  my  country  and  dreamed  of  her  great 
and  holy  mission  in  the  world ;  and  in  the  struggle  against  the 
Voltairian  and  egoistic  tendencies  of  the  government  and  the  ruling 
classes,  I  saw  the  triumph  of  religious  and  charitable  ideas.235 

One  consolation  he  had.  "  There  will  remain,"  he  said, 
"  among  the  parliamentary  achievements  of  assemblies  now 
silent  and  vanquished,  some  few  laws  of  genuine  service  to 
the  poor."  236  And  he  had  just  reason  for  self -congratulation ; 
the  social  laws  of  1850-1851  represented  a  solid  achievement, 
and  several  of  them  have  continued  in  force,  with  only  slight 
amendment,  to  the  present  day. 


52  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

SOCIAL  REACTION  :     CAUSES 

After  Melun's  retirement,  the  spirit  of  social  reaction  be- 
came widely  prevalent  among  Catholics.  Social  and  political 
conservatism  triumphed  over  the  spirit  of  reform.  It  will  be 
remembered  that  the  Liberal  Catholics  of  1830-1848, —  Oz- 
anam,  Lacordaire,  and  their  friends, —  had  proclaimed  a  two- 
fold mission  for  Christianity  in  the  "  new  era  " :  on  one  hand, 
democratic  political  liberty  must  be  Christianized ;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  economic  organization  of  society  must  be  reformed 
in  harmony  with  Christian  ideals.  After  1851,  both  aspects 
of  that  mission  were  pretty  generally  denied,  or  else  inter- 
preted in  a  very  conservative  sense,  with  the  result  that  the 
democratic  and  social  program  which  had  been  evolved  before 
1848  was  profoundly  modified,  if  not  altogether  discarded, 
during  the  years  1851-1870,  and  the  Catholic  social-reform 
movement  in  France,  while  it  allied  itself  politically  with  the 
cause  of  monarchy,  grew  decidedly  cautious  about  proposals 
for  changes  in  the  economic  order.  The  causes  of  the  po- 
litical reaction  have  already  been  suggested.  It  remains  to 
indicate  the  reasons  for  the  social  reaction. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  assign  causes  for  the  retrogression  of 
Social  Catholicism  after  1848.  One  obvious  cause  was  the 
fact  that  the  movement,  if  it  may  be  called  a  movement,  lost 
its  leaders.  Villeneuve-Bargemont,  the  economist,  died  in  the 
year  1850;  Ozanam,  in  1853;  Lacordaire,  in  1861 ;  Gerbet,  in 
1864;  de  Coux,  in  1865.  Lacordaire  had  been  almost  silenced 
some  time  before  his  death.  Montalembert  (d.  1870)  survived 
most  of  his  associates,  but  was  primarily  interested  in  the  politi- 
cal controversy  regarding  religion  and  liberty,  and  was  terrified 
by  socialism.  The  career  of  Melun  also  lasted  throughout 
the  period  of  the  Second  Empire,  but  Melun,  after  1851,  de- 
voted himself  to  private  charity  rather  than  to  social  legisla- 
tion. As  the  old  leaders  disappeared,  new  leaders  were  not 
found  to  take  the  vacant  places.  Or  rather,  the  Catholic  lead- 
ers of  the  new  generation  refused  to  follow  the  trail  blazed 
by  Ozanam,  Lacordaire,  de  Coux,  and  Villeneuve-Bargemont. 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870          53 

The  tendency  of  the  times  changed ;  for  what  reasons,  remains 
to  be  seen. 

The  Revolution  of  1848  did  much  to  discredit  the  idea  of 
radical  social  reform,  and  particularly  of  social  legislation. 
In  the  first  flush  of  revolutionary  enthusiasm,  in  the  spring 
of  1848,  everything  had  seemed  possible.  The  devolution, 
from  its  inception,  had  shown  a  marked  social  penchant.  By 
one  of  its  first  decrees  the  provisional  government  promised 
"  to  guarantee  the  existence  of  the  workingman  by  his  work," 
and  "  guarantee  work  to  all  citizens  "  (Feb.  25,  1848). 237  The 
decree  was  drafted  by  a  socialist,  Louis  Blanc,  and  its  approval 
was  expedited  by  the  insistence  of  a  group  of  workingmen 
who  had  flocked  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville  to  urge  the  measure. 
The  next  day,  the  government  announced  that  it  would  establish 
"  national  workshops  "  to  provide  labor  for  the  unemployed. 
Accordingly,  public  workshops  were  opened,  and  thousands 
of  workingmen  entered  government  employ.238  Meanwhile  a 
commission,  presided  over  by  Louis  Blanc,  had  been  estab- 
lished at  the  Luxembourg  Palace  to  inquire  into  the  conditions 
of  labor,  and  had  promulgated  various  social  reforms, —  among 
others,  the  limitation  of  the  working  day  at  Paris  to  ten  hours, 
and  in  the  provinces,  to  eleven  hours  (decree  of  March  2, 
1848). 239  The  provisional  government  seemed  to  be  making 
rapid  progress  along  the  path  of  social  legislation. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the  majority  in  the  provisional 
government  was  opposed  to  Louis  Blanc.  The  experiment 
with  "  national  workshops  "  was  not  what  many  people  were 
misled  to  believe  it,  a  sincere  attempt  to  realize  Louis  Blanc's 
program  of  social  reform.  Louis  Blanc  had  advocated  the 
establishment  of  "social  workshops"  (ateliers  sociaux),  by 
which  he  meant  genuine  cooperative  societies  for  industrial 
production.  The  government  was  to  provide  the  capital,  in 
the  first  instance,  and  to  organize  the  workshops  during  the 
first  year;  once  thoroughly  established,  the  workshops  were 
to  become  autonomous,  under  the  management  of  officials 
elected  by  the  workingmen;  all  workingmen  were  to  receive 
equal  wages;  net  profits  were  to  be  divided  into  three  equal 


54  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

parts, —  one  for  distribution  to  the  workers  as  a  wage  bonus, 
one  for  the  support  of  the  aged,  the  sick,  and  the  infirm  and 
for  the  alleviation  of  crises,  and  one  for  equipment.  These 
social  workshops,  it  was  hoped,  would  prove  so  efficient  that 
private  capitalists  would  be  unable  to  compete  with  them, 
and  private  capitalism  would  be  gradually  eliminated  or  ab- 
sorbed by  the  new  organization  of  industry.240 

Now  the  "  national  workshops  "  established  by  the  provi- 
sional government  of  1848  were  not  true  "  social  workshops  " 
but  merely  makeshift  devices  for  the  public  employment  of 
unemployed  men.  Many  of  the  men  were  set  to  work,  not 
at  their  proper  trades,  or  in  productive  industrial  enterprises, 
but  at  such  tasks  as  excavating  in  the  Champs  de  Mars  or 
planting  liberty  trees.  Even  then,  there  was  not  work  enough, 
and  thousands  of  men  found  themselves  with  little  or  nothing 
to  do.  The  wage  paid  by  the  state  was  a  mere  pittance.  The 
manager  was  an  opponent  of  Louis  Blanc's  socialism.  Never- 
theless, the  conservative  classes  seem  to  have  regarded  the 
national  workshops  as  the  realization  of  Louis  Blanc's  social- 
ist ideas,  and  when,  inevitably,  the  national  workshops  proved 
to  be  so  costly  and  so  useless  that  they  fell  under  general 
condemnation,  Louis  Blanc's  socialism  and  his  theory  of  the 
"  right  to  work  "  suffered  blame.  Socialism  was  deemed  dis- 
credited.241 

The  failure  of  Louis  Blanc's  committee  on  labor  to  accom- 
plish any  solid  reforms  was  another  blow  to  socialism.  Blanc 
resigned  the  chairmanship  in  May,  1848,  and  the  committee 
was  considered  dissolved.  Louis  Blanc  found  it  advisable  to 
depart  from  France  in  haste,  and  lived  in  exile  during  the  en- 
suing twenty  years.242 

If  Catholics  after  1848  regarded  socialism  as  dangerous,  im- 
practical, nay  more,  as  a  deadly  menace  to  society,  it  was  not 
merely  because  socialistic  theories  had  been  discredited  in  1848. 
It  was  partly  because  the  socialistic  movement  had  changed  in 
character.  With  the  Revolution  of  1848,  socialism,  passing 
definitely  from  its  Utopian  stage,  became  a  political  and  revo- 
lutionary movement.243  The  Utopian  socialists,  notably  Saint- 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870          55 

Simon  and  Fourier,  who  flourished  in  France  during  the  first 
part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  had  hoped  for  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  society  by  voluntary  action  of  the  upper  classes.24* 
They  were  not  dangerous  agitators  of  the  proletariat.  More- 
over, some  of  the  Utopians  showed  a  distinct  tendency  to  re- 
gard Christianity  as  an  ally,  not  as  an  enemy.  Saint-Simon's 
famous  appeal  to  the  pope  has  already  been  cited.245  Cabet 
held  that  Christianity  and  communism  were  synonomous 
terms.246  Pierre  Leroux  took  the  Christian  ideas  of  charity 
and  human  equality  as  his  starting  point.247  When  we  come 
to  Louis  Blanc,  whose  influence  was  greatest  during  'the 
'forties,  we  find  a  certain  hostility  to  Christianity :  248  still,  the 
socialistic  workingmen  of  1848  were  not  anti-Christian  to  any 
marked  degree.  But  after  Louis  Blanc's  flight,  the  spirit 
changed.  In  part  this  was  due  to  the  bitter  resentment  which 
the  workingman  felt  at  the  readiness  of  the  Catholics  to  ap- 
plaud and  even  promote  the  transformation  of  the  semi-so- 
cialistic provisional  government  into  an  undemocratic  empire. 
The  labor  movement  under  the  Second  Empire  became  in- 
creasingly anticlerical.249  In  part  the  change  was  due  to  the 
influence  of  Proudhon,  whose  ideas  exercised  considerable 
influence-  among  French  socialists,  although,  strictly  speaking, 
he  is  to  be  classed  as  an  anarchist  rather  than  as  a  socialist. 
Proudhon  wished  to  substitute  the  idea  of  justice  for  religion ; 
he  was  outspoken  in  his  attacks  on  the  Church.  "  The  tyranny 
of  the  priests,"  he  wrote  in  1855,  "  is  worse  today  than  in  1815- 
1825 ;  their  avowed  plan  is  to  kill  science,  to  stifle  every  liberty. 
If  ever  democracy  gets  another  inning,  and  I  count  for  some- 
thing, it  will  be  all  up  with  Catholicism  in  France."  25° 

Moreover,  after  1848  the  socialist  movement  came  increas- 
ingly under  Marxian  influence.  The  Communist  Manifesto 
(1848)  by  Karl  Marx  and  Friedrich  Engels  marked  the  begin- 
ning of  modern  socialism.  Marx  and  Engels  were  both  He- 
braic in  race,  and  decidedly  anti-Christian  in  philosophy.  The 
Marxian  socialist  movement  of  the  second  half  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  found  many  of  its  leaders  among  Jews  and 
free-thinkers.  The  socialists  came  more  and  more  to  be  re- 


56  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

garded  —  and  in  some  measure  justly  —  as  enemies  of  Chris- 
tianity as  well  as  of  capitalism.251 

The  growing  anticlerical  tendency  of  socialism  made  the 
Catholics  only  more  hostile  to  socialism.  Montalembert,  who 
is  certainly  not  to  be  classed  among  the  extreme  reactionaries, 
wrote  in  1851,  "to  vote  against  Louis-Napoleon  is  to  decide  in 
favor  of  the  socialist  revolution."  252  And  the  more  firmly  the 
Catholics  supported  Louis  Napoleon,  the  more  anticlerical  the 
socialists  became. 

Their  hostility  to  socialism  made  it  all  the  easier  for  some 
Catholic  economists  and  sociologists  to  join  with  the  Liberal 
economists  in  decrying  excessive  governmental  intervention  in 
labor  problems,  and  even  in  justifying  the  existing  economic 
organization  of  society.  The  pious  Blanc  Saint-Bonnet,253  for 
example,  stoutly  maintained  that  the  economic  order  placed 
each  man  in  the  station  he  deserved.  Prosperity,  he  declared, 
was  the  measure  of  virtue.  Men's  souls,  rather  than  social 
institutions,  needed  to  be  reformed.  "  Open  your  eyes,"  he 
said,  "  this  life  is  nothing  but  a  system  organized  so  as  to  keep 
man  in  poverty,  in  order  that  man  may  exercise  all  the  virtues 
for  the  purpose  of  escaping  from  poverty."  On  the  other 
hand,  Blanc  Saint-Bonnet  urged  the  bourgeoisie  to  strive  for 
the  restoration  of  Christianity  among  the  masses,  and  the 
clergy  to  acquaint  themselves  with  political  economy.  "  Every- 
thing for  the  people,  nothing  by  the  people."  Blanc  Saint- 
Bonnet's  economic  system  was  little  more  than  the  classical  or 
Liberal  political  economy  in  a  new  garb  of  Christian  phrase- 
ology. 

Not  all  Catholic  thinkers  of  the  period  would  go  so  far  as 
Blanc  Saint-Bonnet  in  adopting  Liberal  political  economy.  A 
few  there  were  who  saw  danger  in  the  prevalent  drift  toward 
liberalism  in  economics  and  away  from  liberalism  in  politics. 
Augustin  Cochin,  who  had  been  associated  with  the  Liberal 
Catholic  group  of  1848,  and  who  had  achieved  some  prominence 
in  municipal  politics  at  Paris,  vehemently  rebuked  the  Catholic 
leaders  who  claimed  to  be  promoting  the  interests  of  religion 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  —  1848-1870          57 

by  favoring  the  reactionary  tendencies  of  the  Second  Empire. 
"  People  imagine,"  he  said,  "  that  to  preach  religion  is  to 
preach  patience.  Religion  in  the  role  of  police  is  pleasing  to 
small-spirited  men.  This  path  is  narrow,  this  enterprise  is 
sterile,  it  will  lead  to  the  detestation  of  God  and  of  them  who 
preach  God."  254 

A  second  Catholic  writer,  J.  Bourgeois,  very  candidly  pointed 
out  that  his  co-religionists  had  made  a  monumental  blunder  in 
abandoning  the  earlier  Catholic  social  teachings  and  rushing 
to  the  defense  of  economic  Liberalism,  since  1848.  Economic 
Liberalism,  he  maintained,  caused  industrial  anarchy,  starva- 
tion-wages, unbridled  competition,  speculation,  corruption  of 
morals,  and  a  whole  train  of  corollary  evils.  Socialism  was  a 
natural,  though  not  a  true,  reply  to  economic  Liberalism.  The 
duty  of  Catholics  was  to  make  themselves  the  sincere  and 
serious  champions  of  a  social  program  which  would  correct  the 
errors  of  both  economic  Liberalism  and  socialism.255 

Still  another,  Jean  Baptiste  Bordas-Demoulin,  writing  in  a 
somewhat  more  democratic  spirit,  made  an  earnest  plea  for 
Catholic  support  of  the  democratic  movement  in  both  politics 
and  economics.  If  Christianity  becomes  democratic,  he  de- 
clared, democracy  will  become  Christian.  Economic  democracy 
could  be  achieved,  he  believed,  by  the  concurrent  influence  of 
governmental  intervention,  i.  e.,  social  legislation,  and  labor 
organization,  or  association.  By  promoting  these  influences, 
Catholics  would  help  to  bring  about  "  the  social  reign  of  Chris- 
tianity." 256 

Bordas-Demoulin  drew  most  of  his  ideas  from  Frangois 
Huet,  whose  book  entitled  The  Social  Reign  of  Christianity  257 
is  an  interesting  attempt  to  reconcile  Catholicism  and  the  French 
Revolution,  and  to  use  the  two  as  a  basis  for  a  sort  of  "  Chris- 
tian socialism."  As  one  student  of  his  theories  remarks,  Huet 
was  not  a  socialist  in  the  modern  sense,  for  he  opposed  exces- 
sive governmental  regulation  and  defended  freedom  of  labor 
as  well  as  interest  on  capital.  His  scheme  was  to  establish 
equality  of  economic  competition  by  endowing  each  man  with 


58  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

a  patrimony,  an  education,  and  a  right  to  public  assistance. 
As  regards  politics,  Huet  was  a  republican  and  dreamed  of  a 
future  universal  Christian  republic.258 

Bourgeois,  Bordas-Demoulin,  and  Huet,  however,  cannot  be 
taken  as  genuine  representatives  of  Catholic  ideas  on  social  re- 
form, during  the  period  of  the  Second  Empire.  The  really 
typical  Catholic  economists  of  the  era,  the  men  who  formulated 
the  social  philosophy  which  was  to  be  handed  down  from  the 
Second  Empire  to  the  Catholics  of  the  Third  Republic,  were 
Le  Play  and  Perin.  And  Le  Play  and  Perin,  as  the  following 
paragraphs  will  attempt  to  show,  felt  very  strongly  the  influ- 
ence of  the  social  and  political  conservatism  of  their  day. 

LE  PLAY  AND  PERIN 

The  economists  who  dictated  the  social  philosophy  of  the 
French  Catholics  during  the  latter  part  of  the  Second  Empire 
period  were  far  from  approving  the  social  program  which  had 
been  developed  in  the  period  1832-1851  by  men  like  Villeneuve- 
Bargemont,  Ozariam,  and  Melun.  Frederic  Le  Play,259  a 
French  engineer,  economist,  and  sociologist,  and  Charles  Perin, 
a  Belgian  professor  of  economics,  were  the  two  outstanding 
figures.  These  two  men  wielded  an  enormous  influence  in 
economic  thought,  particularly  among  Catholics.  They 
claimed  to  represent  Christian  social  economy  as  contrasted 
with  the  old  materialistic  political  economy.  But  the  Chris- 
tian social  economy  of  Le  Play  and  Perin  was  not  the  Chris- 
tian economy  of  a  Villeneuve-Bargemont  or  a  Melun ;  it  was 
a  system  fundamentally  hostile  to  the  social  legislation  which 
Villeneuve-Bargemont  and  Melun  had  demanded. 

Strongly  as  he  criticized  the  existing  social  order,  Le  Play 
was  even  more  opposed  to  any  serious  attempt  to  modify  that 
order  by  means  of  social  legislation.  Admitting  that  the 
moderate  British  factory  acts  of  1833,  1842,  1844,  and  1847, 
restricting  the  employment  of  women  and  children,  had  brought 
beneficial  results,  Le  Play  nevertheless  emphatically  condemned 
government  regulation  of  industry  in  principle.260  As  excep- 
tions, legislation  to  prevent  the  disruption  of  family  life  and 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870         59 

to  enforce  respect  of  Sunday  might  perhaps  be  admitted. 
Labor  legislation  was  a  last  resort,  to  be  relied  upon  only  un- 
der abnormal  conditions,  and,  in  most  cases,  the  remedy  was 
worse  than  the  evil. 

Le  Play  believed  that  social  reform  was  to  be  accomplished 
not  by  social  legislation  alone,  but  by  the  threefold  work  of 
(i)  enlightening  public  opinion,  (2)  reforming  morals  and 
customs,  (3)  establishing  proper  institutions  and  laws.  The 
part  of  the  state  in  this  regenerative  process  would  be  relatively 
small  and  would  be  more  negative  than  positive ;  to  be  specific, 
the  state  should  reestablish  liberty  of  testament,  and  should 
repress  violations  of  industrial  liberty ;  on  the  positive  side,  the 
state  should  be  content  to  favor  and  support  the  action  of  in- 
dividuals, especially  of  individual  enlightened  capitalists.  The 
state  should  intervene,  however,  where  private  initiative  was  in- 
capable of  acting,  as  in  the  case  of  preventing  the  industrial 
employment  of  women.  In  the  main  his  doctrine  was  of  a 
strongly  anti-interventionist  tendency.  It  led  almost  irresisti- 
bly to  the  conclusion  that,  "  for  the  time  being,  we  must  re- 
nounce the  hope  of  seeing  the  present  state  of  suffering  reme- 
died by  the  initiative  of  the  rulers."  Perhaps  this  is  one  reason 
why  Le  Play's  school  of  political  economy  received  such  strong 
support  from  men  of  wealth.261 

Le  Play  was  equally  mistrustful  of  labor  organization.  The 
laboring  classes  were  incapable  of  forming  unions  which  would 
contribute  to  the  solution  of  the  social  problem.  "  Among  the 
panaceas  which  have  been  lauded  in  our  time,  labor  organiza- 
tion is  one  of  the  most  overworked.  .  .  .  These  societies  can 
not  afford,  from  the  point  of  view  of  results,  the  same  ad- 
vantages as  individual  labor  or  even  capitalism,  properly  un- 
derstood." If  labor  organizations  or  guilds  were  formed  at 
all,  they  should  be  entirely  free  and  voluntary.262 

The  following  message  from  Le  Play's  book  on  Social  Reform 
in  France  exhibits  his  fundamental  opposition  to  any  vigorous 
form  of  labor  organization: 

One  would  reestablish,  it  is  true,  the  stability  of  men's  positions 
in  life, —  that  excellent  characteristic  of  the  middle  ages, —  by  re- 


60  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

turning  to  the  closed  guilds  and  to  compulsory  engagements.  This 
return  to  the  past,  however,  is  not  at  all  desirable ;  for,  one  would 
destroy  thereby  the  liberty  of  labor,  which,  despite  certain  grave  but 
remediable  evils,  is  one  of  the  rare  features  of  superiority  in  our 
epoch  of  instability  and  antagonism.  It  is  as  necessary  as  ever 
to  assure  the  existence  of  improvident  families ;  but  we  must  ob- 
tain from  the  intelligent  employment  of  free  will  the  result  which 
our  forefathers  obtained  more  easily  from  the  regime  of  regula- 
tion. To  attain  this  end  freely,  we  must  found  agriculture  and  the 
manufacturing  industry  on  the  family  [la  famille  souche,  i.  e.,  the 
family  in  which  the  chosen  son  takes  the  father's  place  as  head  of 
the  family  and  proprietor  of  the  family  patrimony]  and  voluntary 
patronage.  The  return  to  constraint  would  be  opportune  only  if 
our  employers  and  our  workingmen,  persisting  in  their  deplorable 
antagonism,  refused  to  follow  the  example  of  the  model  factories 
of  France  and  foreign  countries.263 

Martin  Saint-Leon,  the  eminent  historian  of  the  French 
craft-guilds,  believes  that  he  finds  in  Le  Play  merely  a  con- 
demnation of  compulsory  guild  organization,  not  a  repudiation 
of  the  guild  idea  in  toto.  Says  Martin  Saint-Leon, 

A  mind  such  as  that  of  Le  Play  could  not  fail  to  appreciate  the 
value  of  the  great  social  force  of  association,  especially  of  pro- 
fessional association.  But, —  and  it  is  from  this  point  of  view  alone 
that  we  are  not  able  to  adhere  to  the  conclusions  formulated  by 
that  great  mind, —  Le  Play  desires  the  free  guild,  i.  e.,  not  merely 
open,  respecting  the  right  of  each  individual  to  labor  and  to 
economic  liberty,  but  also  voluntary  and  resulting  from  private 
initiative.264 

Compare  this  with  Le  Play's  own  statement,  quoted  above, 
that  the  idea  of  industrial  association  was  an  over-rated 
"  panacea."  Even  more  negative  is  the  following  passage 
from  the  pen  of  Le  Play : 

Comparing  the  distress  which  nowadays  weighs  upon  manu- 
facturing populations  with  the  prosperity  which  they  formerly  en- 
joyed, people  have  often  been  led  to  praise  the  principle  of  the 
former  guilds  of  crafts  and  trades.  It  has  even  been  proposed  to 
reestablish  and  perfect  them.  The  experience  acquired  in  a  host  of 
factories,  and  even  in  whole  regions  of  Europe,  counsels  us  to  re- 
ject this  proposition.265 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870         6 1 

The  practical  influence  of  this  doctrine  may  be  seen  in  the 
debates  of  the  Legislative  Body ;  in  1864,  for  example,  we  find 
an  important  employer,  Kolb-Bernard,  echoing  Le  Play's 
theories  and  opposing  a  bill  to  legalize  labor  unions.268 

The  true  bases  of  social  reform,  according  to  Le  Play,  were 
religion,  property,  the  family,  and  patronage.  Religious  piety, 
he  held,  brought  temporal  blessings  as  its  reward.  Property 
was  an  essential  bulwark  of  social  order,  and  should  be  widely 
diffused.  The  family  was  the  natural  unit  of  social  organiza- 
tion. Finally,  much  social  good  might  be  accomplisij^d  by  the 
voluntary  action  of  employers  and  large  landowners,  who 
should  encourage  their  employees  to  marry,  to  acquire  homes 
of  their  own,  and  to  lead  pious,  moral  lives.  The  beneficent 
role  of  the  capitalist  is  what  Le  Play  understood  by  the  word 
patronage.267 

Le  Play's  thoroughly  aristocratic  version  of  Catholic  social 
doctrine  appealed  chiefly  to  capitalists,  to  wealthy  landed  pro- 
prietors, to  engineers  (Le  Play  himself  was  an  engineer), — 
in  a  word,  to  the  upper  and  middle  classes.268  In  Le  Play's 
hands,  Social  Catholicism  lost  its  democratic  features,  was  re- 
shaped on  a  conservative  model,  and  was  coupled  up  with 
monarchist  and  aristocratic  ideas  in  the  domain  of  political 
theory.269  Le  Play,  in  this  sense,  is  the  successor  of  de  Maistre 
and  Bonald,  rather  than  of  Ozanam  and  Lacordaire. 

Six  characteristics  of  Le  Play's  system  were  destined  to 
affect  the  future  development  of  Social  Catholic  thought. 

(i)  In  the  first  place,  it  was  counter-revolutionary;  it 
claimed  to  set  itself  squarely  in  opposition  to  "  the  false  dog- 
mas of  1/89."  27°  Hence,  (2)  in  politics,  it  associated  Catholi- 
cism with  monarchism.  (3)  In  the  field  of  social  reform, 
while  repudiating  democracy  and  equality,  it  sought  to  conserve 
liberty,  and  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  masses  by  the 
benevolent  voluntary  action  of  the  upper  classes.  (4)  In 
method,  Le  Play  was  much  more  thorough,  more  scientific, 
than  his  predecessors ;  casting  aside  a  priori  reasoning,  he  laid 
the  basis  for  his  sociological  theory  in  a  painstaking  study 
of  typical  families,  in  the  most  minute  detail.  Le  Play's  in- 


62  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

fluence  and  example  were  very  beneficial  in  promoting  ob- 
jective, scientific  research  among  Catholic  sociologists.  (5) 
While  the  object  of  his  research  was  to  discover  the  true  facts 
about  existing  conditions,  Le  Play  was  far  from  falling  into 
the  complacent  belief  that  "  whatever  is,  is  right,"  that  existing 
conditions  were  the  inevitable  result  of  natural  laws.  In  his 
book  on  the  Organisation  of  Labor  he  explains  his  difference 
with  the  Liberal  economists  on  this  point: 

The  trouble  came  about  because  several  writers,  ignorant  of  the 
practise  of  prosperous  shops,  have  established  a  systematic  de- 
marcation between  the  economic  and  the  moral  order.  These 
writers  have  exalted  into  theories  the  most  regrettable  facts  of  the 
new  manufacturing  regime.  They  have  taken  no  account  of  the 
reciprocal  duties  imposed  upon  employers  and  upon  workers  by 
time-honored  customs,  which  all  the  social  authorities  of  the  Con- 
tinent and  of  England  herself  continue  to  respect.  Thus,  for  ex- 
ample, they  have  assimilated  the  social  laws  which  determine  the 
wages  of  the  workingmen  to  the  economic  laws  which  govern  the 
exchange  of  produce.  By  this  [error]  they  have  introduced  into 
the  regime  of  labor  a  germ  of  disorganization ;  for  they  have  led 
the  employers  to  exempt  themselves,  with  easy  consciences,  from 
the  most  salutary  obligation  of  custom.271 

(6)  Emphasizing  very  strongly  the  moral  aspect  of  the  social 
problem,  Le  Play  assigned  to  religion  a  very  large  role  in  re- 
forming social  customs,  in  fostering  industry,  sobriety  and 
thrift  on  the  part  of  the  workers  and  charity  on  the  part  of 
the  employers.272 

Much  the  same  drift  towards  conservatism  that  we  have 
found  in  Le  Play's  doctrine  is  evident  in  the  teaching  of  Charles 
Perin,273  a  Catholic  professor  at  the  University  of  Louvain. 
Perin's  best-known  works  were  published  after  1870,  but  his 
influence  had  already  begun  to  be  felt  before  that  date,  and  he 
properly  belongs  with  Le  Play  as  one  of  the  conservative 
Catholic  economists  of  the  Second  Empire  period  whose  ideas 
left  a  strong  impression  on  the  Social  Catholic  movement  of 
the  Third  Republic  period.  He  has  been  called  the  "  creator 
of  Christian  political  economy,"  274  the  "  father  of  the  liberal 
Catholic  economists."  275  Nitti,  writing  in  1890,  asserted  that 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870         63 

Perin  "  is  still  the  Catholic  Socialist  writer  who  enjoys  the 
largest  credit  among  French  Catholics."  276 

To  Perin,  as  to  Le  Play,  the  social  problem  was  more  a  prob- 
lem of  morals  than  of  institutions.  Genuine  social  reform  was 
to  be  secured  only  by  a  reform  of  morals,  in  accord  with  the 
Christian  religion ;  let  everybody  practise  charity  and  industry, 
and  the  social  problem  would  disappear.  The  great  obstacle  to 
be  overcome  was  the  prevalence  of  the  rationalistic  ideas  which 
had  characterized  the  French  Revolution.  The  social  problem, 
said  Perin,  arises  from 

impious  conceptions  which  affirm  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  man 
over  himself,  which  attempt  to  substitute,  in  the  social  order,  the 
authority  of  reason  for  the  authority  of  God.  .  .  .  To  escape  from 
the  precarious  situation  in  which  the  workingmen  live,  there  is  only 
one  way ;  and  that  is  to  effect  a  counter-revolution  in  the  ideas  by 
which  the  present  regime  is  inspired.277 

Reactionary  and  monarchist  as  he  was  in  politics  2T8  and  in 
social  philosophy,  Perin  was  at  bottom  a  Liberal  in  his  economic 
theory.  Liberty,  he  maintained,  was  an  essential  principle  in 
an  ideal  economic  system.279  Owing  to  the  corrupt  condition 
of  existing  society,  the  government  might  be  called  upon  to 
correct  certain  evils  by  means  of  legislation,  in  order  that 
genuine  economic  liberty  might  be  reestablished ;  28°  but  the 
principle  of  government  regulation  was  inherently  dangerous : 

As  soon  as  you  admit  that  the  State  has  the  right  of  regulation 
in  questions  of  production,  as  soon  as  you  accept,  as  the  basis  of 
economic  organization,  the  intervention  of  the  State  in  the  rela- 
tions between  private  interests,  you  are  heading  straight  toward 
socialism.281 

Regarding  the  question  of  intervention  from  another  angle,  he 
observed : 

If  it  should  happen,  because  of  the  apostasy  of  the  nations,  that 
charity  is  dethroned  and  society  delivered  to  the  contrary  of  char- 
ity, which  is  utilitarian  individualism,  enslavement  to  legal  regula- 
tion will  reappear  fatally  as  a  necessary  condition  of  the  material 
existence  of  society.282 


64  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

It  would  be  unfair  to  represent  Perin  as  an  exponent  of  ab- 
solute economic  liberty,  an  uncompromising  opponent  of  all 
government  regulation.  He  justified  social  legislation  for  the 
repression  of  flagrant  economic  abuses,  it  must  be  repeated, 
and  he  claimed  to  differ  from  the  "  Liberal "  economists  in 
that  he  recognized  the  value  of  Christian  charity  and  of  asso- 
ciation in  industry.  Let  him  speak  for  himself :  — 

We  demand  that  the  labor  question  —  in  which  nowadays  the 
economic  question  is  concentrated  —  be  solved  by  all  the  forces 
which  the  social  organism  offers  us,  by  liberty  and  by  public  au- 
thority, the  role  of  each  being  measured  by  its  rights  and  its 
influence.  If  one  is  a  socialist  because  he  represses  the  liberty  to 
do  evil,  and  because  he,  protects  the  weak  by  means  of  legal  regu- 
lation against  the  injustice  of  the  strong,  the  Catholics  are  social- 
ists. They  are  so  today  as  they  have  been  in  every  age,  because 
they  obey  today  as  in  every  age  the  impulse  of  the  Church,  which 
incessantly  claims  from  the  government  laws  to  protect  the  weak, 
and  which,  in  all  places  and  at  all  times,  has  fostered,  organized, 
and  patronized  association,  under  the  rule  of  justice  and  charity 
given  to  men  by  the  Gospel.283 

But,  using  the  terms  in  their  true  sense,  he  said,  "  We  are 
neither  Liberals  nor  Socialists."  284  Herein  lay  Perm's  great- 
est contribution  to  the  Social  Catholic  movement.  He  claimed 
that  Christian  political  economy  differed  from  Liberal  politi- 
cal economy  and  from  Socialism  in  that  it  assigned  to  lib- 
erty its  just  role,  without  exaggeration,  in  harmony  with  the 
dictates  of  justice,  and  without  prejudice  to  the  operation  of 
Christian  charity.  The  idea  that  Christian  political  economy 
was  the  only  true  economy  gave  enormous  encouragement  to 
Social  Catholics  of  a  later  generation,  who  regarded  Perin 
with  imperishable  gratitude  while  they  carried  his  ideas  much 
further  in  the  direction  of  social  legislation. 

The  agencies  to  which  Perin  looked  for  a  solution  of  the 
labor  problem  were:  first,  Christianity  and,  second,  the  free 
organization  of  industry  on  something  resembling  the  plan  of 
the  medieval  guild  system.  Christianity  would  bring  capital- 
ists and  wofkingmen  alike  to  a  sense  of  duty,  of  renunciation, 
of  justice,  of  charity.285  The  modernized  guild, — as  we  may 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  —  1848-1870         65 

call  it  for  lack  of  a  better  term, —  would  combine  two  potent 
principles  of  social  reform,  namely,  patronage  and  associa- 
tion. In  the  guild,  the  relations  of  employer  and  employee, 
of  superior  and  inferior,  would  be  preserved  in  their  most 
salutary  form ;  direct  contact  would  make  the  employers  more 
conscious  of  their  responsibility  as  regards  the  material  and 
moral  well-being  of  their  employees,  and  the  workingmen 
would  be  benefited  by  the  influence  of  their  betters.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  guild  would  embody  the  principle  of  association 
without  false  ideas  of  equality,  and  without  infringement  of 
individual  liberty,  for  the  association  would  be  hierarchical, 
voluntary,  and  free  from  external  constraint.288 

Advocacy  of  the  guild  idea  is  the  most  significant  trait  of 
resemblance  between  Perin  and  Ozanam;  it  is  a  feature  that 
appears  very  conspicuously  in  the  Social  Catholic  movement  of 
our  own  generation. 

Among  the  less  eminent  Catholic  economists  of  the  period, 
Metz-Noblat  and  the  Abbe  Corbiere  may  be  mentioned  as 
further  illustrations  of  the  tendency,  which  has  already  been 
seen  in  Blanc  Saint-Bonnet,  Le  Play,  and  Perin,  to  repudiate 
schemes  of  extensive  social  reform  and  to  fall  back  upon  the  ac- 
cepted doctrines  of  liberal  political  economy.  Alexandre  de 
Metz-Noblat  ( 1820-1871 )  firmly  believed  in  Ricardo's  theory  of 
rent  and  in  Malthus'  law  of  population  (with  some  modifica- 
tions) ;  in  fact,  he  was  convinced  of  the  reality  of  most  of  the 
"  economic  laws  "  discovered  by  the  classical  economists, — 
Smith,  Ricardo,  Malthus,  J.  B.  Say,  Bastiat,  etc.287  The 
economic  life  of  society,  he  tells  us,  is  governed  by  providential 
laws.  Wages  are  determined  by  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mland.288  The  following  passage  from  his  treatise  on  Economic 
Laws  shows  how  absurd  it  would  be  to  attempt  by  social  legis- 
lation to  interfere  with  the  laws  which  govern  wages  and 
profits : 

Political  economy  proves  that  the  laws  according  to  which  wealth 
distributes  itself  naturally,  when  the  play  of  interests  is  free,  are 
the  most  equitable  that  it  would  be  possible  to  adopt ;  and  that,  fur- 
thermore, these  laws  are  not  conventional  and  contingent,  but  are 


66  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

established  by  God  and  therefore  necessary;  that  any  attempt  to 
modify  them  would  be  vain  and  disastrous,  and  that  instead  of 
thereby  increasing  the  welfare  of  the  masses,  one  would  plunge  the 
workingmen  into  frightful  poverty  because  one  would  inflict  steril- 
ity upon  productive  power.289 

These  economic  laws  are  not  in  conflict  with  moral  law.  "  We 
cannot  admit,"  he  said,  "  the  alleged  antagonism  of  scientific 
truth  and  religious  truth,  because  the  contradiction  of  two 
truths  would  be  a  logical  monstrosity,  the  very  supposition  of 
which  is  revolting  to  good  sense."  29°  But  natural  economic 
laws  are  often  misapplied.  Hence,  humanity  "  cannot  return 
to  happiness  and  realize  the  harmony  of  all  interests  by  merely 
returning  to  liberty."  Corrective  action  on  the  part  of  the 
State,  to  reestablish  harmony  and,  so  far  as  possible,  liberty,  in 
the  operation  of  economic  laws,  is  therefore  necessary.  In 
Metz-Noblat's  system,  however,  such  intervention  could  play 
no  very  large  role.291  Morality,  he  believed,  was  the  most  im- 
portant curative  agent.292  Let  us  add  in  conclusion,  that  he 
favored  cooperative  societies,  but  thought  it  impossible  for  co- 
operative production  to  replace  private  capitalism  entirely.293 

Abbe  Corbiere,  like  Metz-Noblat,  attempted  to  show  that 
there  is  no  contradiction  between  economic  science  and  re- 
ligion. Even  more  than  Metz-Noblat,  he  relied  upon  the  class- 
ical or  liberal  economists,  upon  Bastiat,  Say,  Smith,  Ricardo, 
and  Malthus.294  Economic  liberty  was  the  keynote  of  his 
philosophy.  Liberty,  he  declared,  was  the  divinely  imposed 
natural  condition  of  human  progress.295  In  Abbe  Corbiere's 
work  on  Social  Economy  from  the  Christian  Point  of  Vieiv, 
we  find  the  same  lyric  enthusiasm  for  liberty,  for  the  harmonies 
of  economic  law,  as  in  Bastiat  or  in  any  other  of  the  recog- 
nized liberal  economists.  It  is  not  surprising  that  Abbe  Cor- 
biere should  deny  the  "  right  to  work "  (the  slogan  of  the 
proletarian  revolutionists  of  1848),  and  the  "right  to  assist- 
ance." 296  In  only  two  respects  does  he  leave  the  way  open 
for  social  reform,  other  than  moral  regeneration.  First,  he 
admits  that  it  is  the  duty  of  a  Christian  State  to  supplement 
the  inadequate  work  of  private  charity  in  relieving  destitution 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870          67 

and  misfortune.297  In  the  second  place,  he  justifies  the  prin- 
ciple of  labor  organization  or  association,  as  an  exercise  of 
liberty,  a  sacred  right,  and  a  source  of  social  good ;  such  asso- 
ciation, however,  must  be  absolutely  free  and  voluntary,  and 
must  not  interfere  with  normal  competition.298 

If  these  Catholic  economists  were,  from  a  modern  point  of 
view,  excessively  timid  in  proposing  remedies  for  social  in- 
justices, if  they  were  inclined  to  uphold  "  economic  liberty," 
and  to  preach  morality  rather  than  to  point  out  the  opportuni- 
ties for  social  legislation,  it  was  not  because  they  were  less 
progressive  than  their  contemporaries,  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
because  they  shared  both  the  fears  and  the  prejudices  of  their 
contemporaries.  The  Catholic  economists  before  1848  had 
been  more  advanced  than  the  recognized  bourgeois  economists ; 
after  1848  Catholic  social  philosophy,  for  the  reasons  which 
have  been  explained,  merely  fell  back  towards  the  intrenched 
position  of  orthodox  political  economy.  The  dominant  spirit 
of  the  Second  Empire  period  was,  in  political  economy,  a  re- 
vulsion against  socialism.299  The  bourgeois  economists,  Catho- 
lic and  non-Catholic  alike,  feared  socialism,  exalted  economic 
liberty,  preached  morality  as  the  cure  of  social  disorder,  and 
showed  the  danger  of  extensive  social  legislation.300  Hippolyte 
Passy,  for  example,  declared  that  "  from  the  moment  that 
you  admit  that  something  should  be  done  in  favor  of  any  par- 
ticular fraction  of  society,  even  though  it  be  the  most  numer- 
ous fraction,  you  are  abandoning  political  economy,  you  are 
practising  socialism."  301  Louis  Napoleon  himself,  while  claim- 
ing to  be  the  friend  of  the  workingman,  echoed  the  same  warn- 
ing against  excessive  government  regulation  of  industry: 
"  perhaps  the  greatest  danger  of  modern  times,"  he  said  in 
1849,  "comes  from  the  false  opinion,  .  .  .  that  a  government 
can  do  everything  and  that  it  is  essential  in  any  system  to 
respond  to  all  requirements,  to  remedy  all  evils." 302  Jules 
Simon,  a  liberal  and  non-Catholic,  who  was  regarded  as  an 
authority  on  labor  problems,  emphatically  defended  liberty  of 
industry  and  asserted  that  the  government 

should  not  intervene  to  regulate  individual  activity  except  when  that 


68  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

activity  is  notoriously  incapable  of  directing  itself  without  pro- 
foundly disturbing  society,  and  should  not  assume  any  function  un- 
less that  function  is  indispensable  and  cannot  be  exercised  either  by 
individuals  or  by  free  and  voluntary  association.  For  him  who  is 
convinced  of  the  identity  of  politics  and  morals,  or,  to  speak  more 
generally,  of  the  universality  and  legitimacy  of  the  moral  law,  these 
principles  have  the  same  force  as  geometric  axioms.303 

Jules  Simon  was  fully  aware  of  the  deporable  conditions  ex- 
isting among  the  laboring  classes ;  in  fact,  he  published  a  sen- 
sational book,  The  Woman  Worker,  exposing  some  of  the 
worst  evils ;  yet  he  proposed  as  a  remedy,  not  social  legislation, 
but  the  acquisition  of  new  markets,  the  establishment  of  provi- 
dent institutions,  education,  the  revival  of  family  life,  and  the 
reform  of  morals.304  In  one  of  his  books  he  said,  "  There  is 
only  one  reform  to  accomplish;  it  is  not  to  renounce  liberty, 
but  to  complete  it."  305  Again  he  declared,  "  It  is  clear  that 
if  the  State  fixes  the  hours  of  labor  and  the  wages  of  the  work- 
ingman,  it  takes  away  all  liberty  from  the  manufacturers."  306 
The  evils  of  free  competition  in  industry  were  very  grievous, 
but  they  must  be  accepted  as  the  price  of  progress.  *'  While 
competition  dashes  forward,  more  than  one  falls  bleeding  on 
the  road;  but  the  power  of  the  human  spirit  is  doubled,  dis- 
coveries follow  one  another,"  and,  in  short,  civilization  rolls 
on  in  the  path  of  progress,  ruthlessly  and  inexorably.307 


It  has  already  been  shown  how  the  politically  liberal  and 
democratic  school  of  Catholic  social  reform  was  submerged  by 
the  wave  of  political  and  social  reaction  which  swept  over 
France  during  the  Second  Empire  period.  Especially  during 
the  earlier  years  of  Louis  Napoleon's  reign,  the  prevalent 
tendency  of  Catholic  leaders  was  to  accept  Bonapartism  in 
politics  and  a  kind  of  moralized  Liberalism  in  economics;  in 
both  politics  and  economics  they  retreated  from  the  advanced 
position  taken  by  Ozanam  and  Lacordaire  in  1848.  It  was 
not  a  complete  reaction.  The  political  philosophy  of  the  Sec- 
ond Empire  represented  a  compromise  between  the  democratic 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  —  1848-1870          69 

theories  of  the  French  Revolution  and  the  monarchical  practises 
of  the  first  Napoleon.  The  social  policy  of  the  Second  Em- 
pire was  a  melange  of  traditional  Bourbon  paternalism  and  mod- 
ern economic  Liberalism,  tinged,  perhaps  with  the  socialist 
ideas  which  had  interested  Louis  Napoleon  before  his  acces- 
sion to  power.308 

In  the  latter  half  of  Louis  Napoleon's  reign,  this  system  of 
social  and  political  compromises  was  rejected  by  an  increasing 
number  of  Catholics,  for  one  reason  or  another.  By  his  sup- 
port of  the  Italian  national  movement  in  1859,  imperilling  the 
independence  of  the  Papal  States,  he  made  it  quite  impossible 
for  French  Catholics  to  regard  him  as  a  protector  of  the 
Church ;  consequently,  even  though  he  subsequently  revised  his 
Italian  policy,  and  maintained  French  troops  in  Rome  as  a 
guarantee  of  papal  sovereignty,  he  could  not  overcome  the  dis- 
trust of  the  clericals.309  His  refusal  to  assist  the  Catholic 
Poles  in  1863  in  their  rebellion  against  Russian  oppression,310 
and  his  humiliating  failure  in  the  Mexican  intervention  epi- 
sode,311 merely  strengthened  clerical  opposition.  The  advan- 
tages enjoyed  by  Catholic  schools  since  the  Falloux  Law  of 
1850  were  curtailed  by  administrative  decrees  in  the  'sixties, 
and  Victor  Duruy,  an  adversary  of  religious  education,  was 
appointed  minister  of  education  (i863).312  The  government 
attempted  to  bring  the  Society  of  Saint  Vincent  de  Paul  under 
its  control,  and,  by  claiming  the  right  to  appoint  the  chairman  of 
that  society,  precipitated  a  conflict  which  led  to  the  dissolution 
of  the  central  committee.313  These  and  similar  incidents  led 
many  Catholics  to  regret  that  Catholic  votes  had  helped  to 
place  Louis  Napoleon  on  the  throne.  So  thoroughly,  however, 
had  the  monarchist  sentiment  captivated  their  imagination, 
that  they  turned  not  to  democracy  but  to  royalism.314 

For  the  development  of  Social  Catholicism,  this  royalist  trend 
of  thought  was  specially  significant.  It  meant  that  as  the  in- 
fluence of  Lacordaire  and  Ozanam  waned,  the  ideas  of  de 
Maistre  and  Bonald  gained  popularity ;  it  meant  that  the  organ- 
ized Social  Catholic  movement  was  to  be  launched,  after  1870, 
under  royalist  colors,  and  under  the  handicap  of  association 


70  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

with  political  opposition  to  the  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment. 

The  royalist  pretenders  did  much  to  encourage  the  idea  that 
the  cause  of  Christian  social  reform  was  bound  up  with  the 
cause  of  royalty.  The  Count  of  Paris,  who  represented  the 
Orleanist  claims,  published  a  study  of  Labor  Organisations  in 
England,  in  1869,  in  which  he  took  what  must  be  considered, 
for  the  age,  a  fairly  advanced  stand  on  labor  problems.  There 
was  no  panacea,  he  said,  but  there  were  a  number  of  partial 
solutions.  Experience  had  proved  that  "  nothing  is  more  ex- 
pensive than  cheap  labor  " ;  hence,  mere  business  shrewdness 
should  compel  employers  to  pay  decent  wages.  Legislation 
should  be  enacted  to  protect  women  and  children  against  em- 
ployers who  demanded  excessive  labor.  Arbitration  and  the 
free  discussion  of  disputes  between  employers  and  employees 
had  brought  very  happy  results  in  England;  it  was  not  a  rad- 
ical solution,  but  it  would  prepare  the  way  for  further  solutions. 
Cooperative  production,  he  thought,  should  not  be  regarded 
with  disfavor.  Education  of  the  working-classes  was  to  be 
regarded  as  a  reform  of  the  highest  importance,  for  upon  it  de- 
pended the  success  of  all  other  reforms  in  the  interest  of  the 
masses.315 

The  Legitimist  pretender,  the  Count  of  Chambord,  did  not 
content  himself  with  rambling  reflections  on  the  labor  problem. 
He  boldly  and  unequivocally  identified  himself  with  the  char- 
acteristic reform  to  which  the  pioneers  of  Social  Catholicism 
had  been  most  powerfully  attracted,  i.  e.,  the  guild  organization 
of  industry.  In  his  public  "  Letter  on  Labor,"  31G  April  20, 
1865,  Chambord  declared: 

Royalty  has  always  been  the  patron  of  the  working  classes ;  the 
establishments  [etablissements]  of  Saint  Louis,  the  regulations 
of  the  crafts,  the  system  of  guilds,  are  manifest  proofs  of  this.  It 
is  under  this  protection  that  French  industry  grew  and  arrived  at 
a  degree  of  prosperity  and  of  just  renown  which,  in  1789,  left  it 
inferior  to  none. 

The  Revolution,  on  the  contrary,  ha.d  been  a  disaster  for 
labor. 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870          71 

The  Constituent  Assembly  did  not  content  itself  with  giving 
greater  freedom  to  industry,  to  commerce,  and  to  labor,  as  the 
cahiers  had  demanded;  it  threw  down  all  barriers,  and  instead  of 
freeing  the  guilds  from  the  fetters  which  troubled  them,  it  pro- 
hibited even  the  right  of  assembly  and  the  privilege  of  agreement 
and  combination.  .  .  .  The  liberty  of  labor  was  proclaimed,  but  the 
liberty  of  association  was  destroyed  by  the  same  blow.  Hence  the 
individualism  of  which  the  laborer  is  still  the  victim  today.  Con- 
demned to  isolation,  he  is  penalized  by  the  law  if  he  wishes  to 
make  an  agreement  with  his  fellows,  if  he  wishes  to  organize,  for 
his  defense,  for  his  protection,  for  his  representation,  one  of  those 
unions  which  are  his  natural  right,  .  .  .  and  which  society  should 
encourage  and  regulate.  .  .  . 

The  individual,  remaining  without  protection  for  his  interests, 
has  been  all  the  more  rendered  a  prey  to  unlimited  competition, 
against  which  he  had  no  resource  other  than  coalitions  and  strikes. 
Up  until  last  year,  these  coalitions  were  liable  to  severe  penalties, 
which  most  of  the  time  fell  upon  the  most  capable  and  honest 
workingmen,  whom  the  confidence  of  their  comrades  had  made 
leaders  or  representatives.  It  was  a  wrong.  .  .  .317 

After  contrasting  the  benefits  conferred  upon  labor  by  the 
monarchy  with  the  evils  wrought  by  the  Revolution,  the  Count 
of  Chambord  went  on  to  observe  that  a  sort  of  "  industrial 
privileged  order  "  had  arisen,  "  holding  in  its  hands  the  ex- 
istence of  the  laborers."  Though  many  of  the  industrial  cap- 
italists had  shown  great  Christian  charity  and  zealous  benevo- 
lence, "  protection  is  not  yet  sufficiently  exercised,"  and  "  the 
moral  and  material  interests  of  the  working  classes  are  still 
badly  neglected."  318 

By  way  of  remedy,  the  count  proposed  "  the  voluntary  and 
regulated  constitution  of  guilds  "  as  the  most  effective  safe- 
guard against  individualism,  unbridled  competition,  and  in- 
dustrial license.  To  the  workingmen  must  be  restored  their 
right  of  concerted  action  within  the  limits  prescribed  by  the 
necessities  of  public  peace  and  respect  for  the  rights  of  all. 
'  The  only  means  to  this  end  "  was  "  liberty  of  association, 
wisely  regulated  and  restricted  within  just  limits."  "  In  a 
word,"  he  continued,  "  what  is  demonstrated  is  the  necessity 
of  voluntary  and  free  association  of  workingmen  for  the  de- 
fense of  their  common  interests."  It  would  be  natural  that 


72 

within  these  associations,  there  should  be  formed  some  sort  of 
trade-unions,  delegations,  or  representative  institutions  through 
which  the  workingmen  would  be  able  to  negotiate  with  employ- 
ers or  employers'  associations  for  the  amicable  settlement  of 
disputes  regarding  wages  and  conditions  of  labor.  In  other 
words,  the  organization  of  labor  would  make  possible  the 
creation  of  joint  shop-committees,  representing  employers'  and 
workingmen's  unions.319 

Certain  safeguards  would  be  necessary  to  prevent  the  labor 
unions  from  being  used  for  purposes  inimical  to  public  order. 
Meetings  must  not  be  held  without  preliminary  notice.  The 
government  should  have  the  right  of  representation  at  any 
meeting,  and  should  make  sure  that  "  the  aim  and  object  of 
the  meetings  were  not  forgotten  or  exceeded  " ;  but  the  gov- 
ernment would  allow  "  entire  liberty  "  in  the  debates  and  pro- 
ceedings and  would  intervene  in  labor  disputes  only  in  a 
friendly  manner,  at  the  request  of  both  parties,  to  facilitate 
agreement.  In  this  way,  he  believed,  the  labor  organizations 
would  enjoy  substantial  freedom,  while  the  government  would 
be  able  to  repress  disorders.  This  form  of  organization,  he 
predicted,  would  lead  to  a  community  of  interest  between 
capital  and  labor. 

Peace  and  order  will  result  from  these  deliberations  [of  the  joint 
committees],  in  which,  according  to  reason  and  experience,  the  most 
capable  and  conciliatory  representatives  of  both  parties  will  par- 
ticipate. An  equitable  satisfaction  will  thus  be  assured  to  the 
laborers ;  the  abuses  of  competition  will  be  avoided  as  much  as 
possible,  and  the  domination  of  industrial  privilege  will  be  con- 
fined to  narrow  limits.320 

Furthermore,  the  Count  of  Chambord  suggested,  the  guilds 
might  "  enter  into  the  organization  of  the  commune  and  into 
the  bases  of  the  electorate  and  of  the  suffrage."  321  This  is, 
in  embryo,  the  idea  of  functional  or  professional  representa- 
tion, which  Social  Catholics  of  a  later  generation  were  to 
elaborate,  and  which  was  destined  to  gain  considerable  popu- 
larity. 

The  Count  of  Chambord  did  not  enter  into  further  details. 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870         73 

His  description  of  the  new  form  of  labor  organization  leaves 
much  to  be  desired  in  respect  of  clarity  and  elaboration.  Ap- 
parently the  guild  (corporation)  is  to  be  a  sort  of  outer  shell 
embracing  within  itself  separate  unions  of  capital  and  labor, 
with  a  mixed  committee.  But  he  gives  us  no  hint  as  to 
the  precise  nature  of  the  constitution  which  he  proposes  for 
the  guild. 

For  all  its  vagueness,  the  pretender's  "  Letter  on  Labor  " 
is  a  significant  document.  At  that  date  (1865),  labor  unions 
had  no  legal  status  in  France;  in  fact,  up  until  1864,  every 
"  coalition,  whether  on  the  part  of  employers  with  a  view  to 
forcing  a  diminution  of  wages,  or  on  the  part  of  the  working- 
men  with  a  view  to  stopping  work  in  a  shop,"  had  been  il- 
legal, and  its  principal  authors  were  liable  to  the  penalty  of 
from  two  to  five  years'  imprisonment.  This  clause  of  the  penal 
code  had  been  repealed  in  1864,  but  labor  organization  was 
still  not  recognized  as  legitimate;  trade-unions  and  employers' 
associations  were  organizations  outside  the  law,  existing  on 
sufferance.322  Therefore  one  of  the  principal  demands  of 
labor  leaders  was  for  legalization  of  trade-unionism.  It  re- 
quired twenty  years  of  agitation  (1864-1884)  to  induce  the 
government  to  grant  such  a  reform.  Now  the  significance  of 
the  count's  letter  is  that  as  early  as  1865  the  reactionary  Le- 
gitimist cause  was  placed  on  record  as  favorable  to  the  legal- 
ization of  labor  organization.  We  shall  see  some  of  the  most 
extreme  political  reactionaries  standing  shoulder  to  shoulder 
with  socialists  as  champions  of  labor's  right  to  organize. 

Chambord's  stand  on  the  question  of  labor  organization  was 
calculated  to  revive  the  idea  that  Catholic  social  reform  was 
bound  up  with  the  cause  of  the  Bourbon  Pretender.  In  this 
connection,  the  concluding  paragraph  of  his  letter  is  worth 
quoting : 

Above  all  in  the  face  of  the  present  difficulties,  does  it  not  seem 
[right]  that  the  truly  Christian  and  truly  French  monarchy,  faithful 
to  all  the  traditions  of  its  glorious  past,  should  today  do  for  the 
emancipation  and  the  moral  and  material  prosperity  of  the  work- 
ing classes  what  it  has  done  in  other  periods  for  the  enfranchise- 


74  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

ment  of  the  communes?  Does  it  not  appertain  to  it  [royalty]  to 
summon  the  working-people  to  enjoy  liberty  and  peace,  under  the 
necessary  guarantee  of  authority,  under  the  spontaneous  tutelage 
of  devotion  and  under  the  auspices  of  Christian  charity?323 

BY  WAY  OF  SUMMARY  i 

If  the  reader  will  turn  back  to  Chapter  One  of  this  volume, 
he  will  find  a  statement  of  the  five  principles 324  which  had 
been  laid  down,  in  the  period  1815-1848,  by  the  group  of  Cath- 
olic reformers  whom  we  may  regard  as  the  pioneers  of  Social 
Catholicism.  It  is  now  opportune  to  ask,  in  what  respects  had 
these  five  principles  suffered  modification  during  the  Second 
Empire  period?  To  what  extent  had  the  embryonic  demo- 
cratic and  social  program  of  French  Catholicism  been  modi- 
fied? 

In  the  first  place,  the  instinctive  rebellion  against  the  harsh 
teachings  of  the  Liberal  or  Classical  school  of  political  economy 
was  no  longer  so  characteristic.  A  number  of  Catholic  writers 
had  become  enthusiastic  converts  of  Adam  Smith,  J.  B.  Say, 
Ricardo,  and  Malthus.  Others,  like  Le  Play,  and,  above  all, 
Charles  Perin,  attacked  orthodox  economic  Liberalism  in  cer- 
tain of  its  extreme  aspects,  but  were  at  heart  partisans  of 
economic  liberty,  averse  to  any  large  conception  of  social  legis- 
lation. A  few  remained  uncompromisingly  hostile  to  economic 
Liberalism  and  individualism. 

In  the  second  place,  the  foremost  Catholic  economists  and 
sociologists  of  the  Second  Empire  period  were,  in  the  author's 
opinion,  disposed  not  so  much  to  make  Christian  charity  and 
Christian  morality  the  basis  of  a  different  social  and  economic 
philosophy,  as  to  include  them  in  the  prevalent  philosophy. 
Charity  and  morality,  to  Le  Play,  were  factors  which  should 
correct  the  abuses  of  the  existing  regime  and  mitigate  its  evils ; 
they  were  not  principles  dictating  a  fundamentally  different 
organization  of  industry.  To  Perin,  Christianity  did  offer  the 
basis  of  a  different  organization ;  he  desired  the  formation 
of  guilds ;  but  the  reform  was  to  take  place  within  rather  than 
against  the  existing  order;  the  classical  principle  of  economic 


MODIFICATION  OF  THE  PROGRAM  — 1848-1870          75 

liberty  was  not  to  be  controverted,  but  used,  by  Christian  so- 
cial reform. 

In  the  third  place,  it  had  been  asserted  that  the  condemna- 
tion of  labor  organization  by  the  classical  economists  was  ab- 
solutely pernicious ;  that  the  most  promising  means  of  erad- 
icating the  evil  effects  of  individualism  and  competition  in 
industry  was  the  creation  of  labor  organizations;  that  the 
guild  system,  "destroyed  by  Turgot  and  the  Revolution,  should 
therefore  be  adapted  to  modern  needs  and  restored.  Under 
the  Second  Empire,  this  principle  survived,  but  not  univer- 
sally. Le  Play,  as  we  have  seen,  had  little  confidence  in  labor 
organization.  Perin,  to  be  sure,  strongly  favored  the  guild 
idea,  but  wished  the  new  guilds  to  be  entirely  voluntary. 
Chambord  made  the  guild,  vaguely  defined,  the  central  fea- 
ture of  social  reform.  It  was  an  idea  that  subsequently  ap- 
pealed strongly  to  Catholic  royalists. 

Insistence  upon  a  just  family  wage  was  no  longer  so  em- 
phatic under  the  Second  Empire.  As  was  quite  natural  with 
economists  whose  thoughts  were  preoccupied  with  the  menace 
of  socialism,  Le  Play,  Perin,  and  their  contemporaries  tended 
to  be  less  belligerent  than  their  precursors  in  attacking  the 
injustices  under  which  the  workingmen  suffered. 

In  the  fifth  place,  social  legislation  for  the  protection  of 
the  working  classes  was  no  longer  so  strongly  supported  in 
principle,  although  the  necessity  of  minor  measures  (such  as 
restriction  of  the  employment  of  women,  interdiction  of  labor 
on  Sunday,  etc.)  was  admitted.  The  theoretical  dangers  of 
social  legislation, —  the  peril  of  socialism  and  the  destruction 
of  liberty, —  were  so  insistently  held  up  to  view,  and  voluntary 
individual  moral  or  benevolent  action  was  so  frequently  urged 
as  the  proper  instrument  of  social  reform,  that  the  idea  of 
social  legislation  may  be  said  to  have  suffered  a  distinct  set- 
back. 

While  the  social  program  was  thus  moderated,  the  democratic 
program  was  absolutely  discarded  jby  the  more  influential 
Catholic  leaders  and  writers  of  the  period.  A  majority  ac- 
quiesced in  Louis  Napoleon's  rule,  hoping  that  the  Church 


76  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

would  benefit  by  his  protection.  Others,  especially  in  the 
'sixties,  cherished  the  hope  that  the  Legitimist  pretender  or  the 
Orleanist  pretender  could  be  restored  to  the  throne.  Conse- 
quently, Catholic  ideas  of  social  reform  tended  to  lose  their 
democratic  spirit  and  associations.  Le  Play  and  Perin  place 
their  faith  in  the  beneficence  of  the  upper  classes.  Social  re- 
form becomes  an  aristocratic  "  uplift "  movement  rather  than 
a  democratic  effort  to  establish  a  better  social  order.  With  the 
Legitimists  the  undemocratic  tendency  reaches  its  extreme; 
Christian  social  reform  becomes  the  function  of  divine-right 
monarchy,  aided  by  the  private  charitable  endeavors  of  the 
upper  classes. 


CHAPTER  III 

POPULARIZATION  AND  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
THE  PROGRAM 

THE  COMMUNE  AND  THE  REACTION 

UNDER  the  Second  Empire,  bourgeois  economists  and  sociolo- 
gists, Catholic  and  non-Catholic  alike,  had  shown  so  strong  a 
tendency  to  react  against  positive  programs  of  legislative  ac- 
tion for  the  relief  of  the  working  classes,  and  to  content  them- 
selves with  exhortations  to  moral  reform,  that  some  violent 
shock,  some  terrible  explosion  of  the  pent-up  forces  of  social 
discontent,  seemed  necessary  to  awaken  them  to  a  sense  of  real- 
ity. Such  a  shock  was  provided  by  the  Commune,  that  tragic 
insurrection  of  the  Parisian  populace  in  the  spring  of  1871, 
following  the  downfall  of  the  Second  Empire  and  the  defeat 
of  France  by  the  Germans. 

As  in  the  February  Revolution  of  1848,  the  popular  uprising 
of  March,  1871,  was  tinged  with  socialism.  It  was  not  thor- 
oughly socialist  in  character,  but  sufficiently  so  to  be  alarming 
to  the  propertied  classes.  The  socialists  were  conspicuous, 
though  a  minority,  among  the  leaders  of  the  Commune.325 
While  foreign  socialists  hailed  the  uprising  as  the  inaugural 
victory  of  the  proletarian  revolution,  French  conservatives, 
realizing  in  their  fright  that  the  existing  social  order  was  men- 
aced, sent  troops  to  besiege  Paris,  in  April.  The  resolute  re- 
sistance of  the  Commune  was  not  easily  overcome.  Not  until 
May  21  did  the  national  troops  succeed  in  forcing  an  entry  into 
the  city.  Still  the  city's  defenders  held  out;  though  barricade 
after  barricade  was  captured;  though  various  quarters  of  the 
city  were  in  flames ;  though  artillery  added  to  the  havoc ;  though 
the  troops  of  "  law  and  order  "  took  savage  vengeance  on  the 
defenders.  In  their  desperation,  the  insurgents  shrank  from 

77 


78  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

no  deed  of  horror.  While  the  conflict  was  raging,  they  massa- 
cred batches  of  hostages  —  clergymen,  policemen,  and  bour- 
geois —  whom  they  had  been  holding.  But  at  length  the  last 
barricade  was  taken,  after  eight  days  of  street-fighting;  Paris 
was  once  more  in  the  hands  of  the  national  government;  and 
the  work  of  punishing  the  rebels  was  taken  in  hand.  Thou- 
sands were  summarily  executed;  other  thousands  were  con- 
demned to  imprisonment  or  deportation.  Altogether,  it  has 
been  estimated,  Paris  lost  80,000  citizens.326 

The  Commune,  it  should  be  repeated,  was  not  a  socialist 
proletarian  revolution,  but  socialism  played  a  large  enough 
role  in  it  to  terrify  the  governing  classes.  Even  after  the 
Commune  had  been  crushed  and  its  surviving  authors  con- 
dignly  punished,  the  government  seemed  to  regard  socialism 
with  mixed  feelings  of  panicky  fear  and  vengeful  hatred.327 
Jules  Favre,  then  foreign  minister,  issued  a  circular  note  to 
the  French  representatives  abroad,  proposing  an  international 
European  entente  against  the  socialist  Internationale.  "  The 
Internationale"  he  declared,  "  is  an  organization  of  war  and 
of  hate.  It  has  for  its  basis  atheism  and  communism ;  for  its 
aim,  the  destruction  of  capital  and  the  annihilation  of  those  who 
possess  capital ;  for  its  method,  the  brutal  force  of  great  num- 
bers, which  will  crush  whatever  attempts  to  resist  it."  328 

To  suppress  the  Internationale,  the  French  National  As- 
sembly in  1872  passed  a  law  defining  as  an  attack  on  public 
peace  "  any  international  association  which,  under  whatever 
name  it  may  assume,  and  notably  under  the  name  of  the  In- 
ternational Working  Men's  Association,  aims  to  provoke  the 
suspension  of  labor,  the  abolition  of  the  right  of  property,  of 
the  family,  of  religion  or  of  freedom  of  worship."  Affiliation 
with  such  associations  was  heavily  penalized.329  Certain  mem- 
bers of  the  Assembly  even  proposed  to  reestablish  the  clause  of 
the  penal  code  against  coalitions  or  unions  of  workingmen.830 
Freedom  of  association,  said  a  member  of  the  majority  party, 
would  be  a  "  dangerous  weapon  "  in  the  hands  of  labor.331 

A  parliamentary  inquiry  into  the  conditions  of  the  work- 
ing-classes, instituted  in  1872,  resulted  in  a  report,  written  by 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM        79 

an  industrial  capitalist,  Ducarre,  justifying  the  existing  or- 
ganization of  industry,  opposing  trade-unionism,  and  conclud- 
ing: 

The  liberty  of  labor  formulated  by  Turgot  and  decreed  by  the 
great  Constituent  Assembly  is  the  essential  reason  for  our  indus- 
trial prosperity. 

It  leaves  to  all  French  citizens,  workingmen  or  employers,  the 
task  of  regulating  their  economic  relations  as  they  understand  them. 

It  forbids  any  collectivity,  whatever  be  its  name,  form,  or  origin, 
to  substitute  itself  for  their  private  initiative. 

The  existing  laws  do  not  intervene  except  to  protect  and  secure 
the  execution  of  conventions  freely  consented  to  by  them  and 
between  them. 

Perfectible,  like  all  the  works  of  man,  these  laws  must  be  kept 
in  touch  with  and  on  a  level  with  progress  and  civilization.  But 
they  must  respect,  above  all,  and  in  the  most  absolute  manner :  the 
individual  liberty  of  labor,332 

In  the  general  reaction  against  socialism,  the  Catholic  lead- 
ers were  as  emphatic  as  any.333  To  them,  even  more  than  to 
others,  the  Commune  had  appeared  as  a  terrible  object  lesson. 
The  Communards,  it  will  be  recalled,  had  confiscated  the 
property  of  the  religious  orders,  had  separated  church  and  state 
and  suppressed  the  public  worship  fund.  Among  the  hostages 
massacred  by  the  Communards  had  been  the  Archbishop  of 
Paris,  and  a  number  of  priests.334  Catholics  naturally  felt  that 
socialism  and  revolution,  as  manifested  in  the  Commune,  were 
inherently  anti-religious  in  purpose  and  criminal  in  method. 
Socialism,  it  seemed,  was  the  foe  of  religion  as  well  as  of  so- 
ciety and  of  property.335 

While  opposition  to  socialism  was  perhaps  the  first  element 
in  the  emotional  reaction  of  Catholics  after  the  Commune, 
the  reaction  was  so  genuine  and  so  powerful  that  it  had  a  posi- 
tive as  well  as  a  negative  side.  So  painful  was  their  con- 
sciousness of  the  reality  of  the  social  problem,  that  Catholics 
threw  themselves  into  various  branches  of  charitable  and  set- 
tlement work  with  unaccustomed  ardor.  In  September,  1871, 
the  directors  of  Catholic  charitable  societies  concerned  with 
the  welfare  of  the  poorer  classes  came  together  in  a  congress 


80  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

at  Nevers,  and  created  a  nation-wide  Union  of  Catholic  Wel- 
fare Societies  (  Union  des  associations  ouvrieres  catholiques  de 
France),  which,  through  its  annual  congresses,  helped  to  arouse 
interest  in  social  problems  and  to  organize  Catholic  philan- 
thropy.338 

In  1872,  the  great  Catholic  economist,  Le  Play,  founded 
what  he  called  "  Unions  of  Social  Peace  "  ( Unions  de  la  Pai.v 
sociale)  to  give  practical  expression  to  his  theories  of  social 
reform.  Their  aim  was  to  refute  popular  errors,  such  as 
socialism,  to  strengthen  paternal  authority  and  the  stability  of 
the  family,  to  establish  good  relations  between  capital  and 
labor,  to  encourage  thrift  and  home-ownership,  to  protest 
against  the  employment  of  women  in  factories  and  encourage 
work  at  home,  to  protect  women  against  immorality,  to  support 
the  principle  of  cessation  of  labor  on  Sundays,  etc.337 

This  activity,  while  important  enough  in  its  way,  had  no 
very  direct  bearing  on  radical  social  reform  or  labor  legislation. 
It  is  significant,  in  this  study,  as  a  background  for  the  more 
aggressive  movement  launched  about  the  same  time  by  two 
young  army  officers,  Count  Albert  de  Mun  and  Count  Rene  de 
La  Tour  du  Pin.  Starting  where  Le  Play  and  Perin  left  off, 
de  Mun  and  La  Tour  du  Pin,  and  their  followers,  gradually  de- 
veloped a  remarkable  constructive  program  of  labor  reform  and 
social  legislation,  which  was  so  sweeping  and  so  radical  that 
many  conservatives  branded  it  as  socialist.  It  was  chiefly  due 
to  the  efforts  of  de  Mun  and  La  Tour  du  Pin  that  the  Catholic 
reaction  produced  a  Catholic  social  movement  capable  of  play- 
ing a  conspicuous  role  in  the  social  politics  of  the  Third  Re- 
public. They  may  be  regarded  as  the  initiators  of  the  contem- 
porary Social  Catholic  movement  in  France. 

COUNT  ALBERT  DE  MUN  AND  THE  CATHOLIC  WORKINGMEN'S 

CLUBS 

Count  Albert  de  Mun's  own  story  of  his  "  social  voca- 
tion " 338  and  of  his  first  experiments  with  Catholic  working- 
men's  clubs  reads  almost  like  a  romance ;  it  is  the  story  of  a 
novel  adventure  and  of  generous  enthusiasm.  Like  many  an- 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM        8l 

other  ambitious  youth  of  noble  family,339  Albert  de  Mun  had 
studied  military  science  at  the  Ecole  de  Saint-Cyr;  he  had 
passed  five  years  (1862-1867)  in  active  service  with  the  French 
cavalry  in  Algeria ;  upon  his  return  to  France  he  had  married 
and  had  been  assigned  to  garrison  duty  at  Clermont-Ferrand. 
Thus  far  his  was  the  typical  career  of  an  aristocratic  army 
officer.  At  Clermont-Ferrand,  howiever,  'he  discovered  for 
the  first  time  the  existence  of  the  working  classes  and  speedily 
became  interested  in  charitable  work  as  a  member  of  the  local 
Conference  of  Saint  Vincent  de  Paul.340 

The  outbreak  of  the  Franco-i/PfUsjsian  war  in  1870  found  him 
a  lieutenant,  attached  to  a  cavalry  division  of  the  ill-fated  army 
of  Metz.  Taken  prisoner  by  the  Germans  at  Metz,  he  was 
interned  at  Aix-la-Chapelle.  There,  in  the  company  of  a  fel- 
low-officer—  (Captain)  Count  Rene  de  La  Tour  du  Pin, —  he 
had  ample  opportunity  to  reflect  upon  the  causes  of  his  coun- 
try's disaster.  A  social  turn  was  given  to  the  philosophizing  of 
the  young  French  officers  by  conversation  with  a  German  Jesuit, 
the  Reverend  Father  Eck,  who  placed  in  their  hands  Emile 
Keller's  suggestive  treatise  on  Catholicism  and  Democracy,341 
as  well  as  by  discussions  with  Dr.  Lingens,  who  subsequently 
became  a  prominent  member  of  the  German  Center  Party,  and 
who  was  abundantly  able  to  enlighten  de  Mun  and  La  Tour  du 
Pin  regarding  the  progress  of  Social  Catholicism  in  Ger- 
many.342 

Returning  home  at  the  close  of  the  war,  de  Mun  arrived 
just  in  time  to  assist  in  the  suppression  of  the  Paris  Commune. 
The  virulent  hatred  engendered  by  the  struggle,  the  impiety  of 
the  insurgents,  and  the  massacre  of  the  hostages,  not  even  spar- 
ing the  priests,  left  an  ineffaceable  impression  upon  his  memory ; 
the  Commune,  he  declared,  was  a  "  monstrous  insurrection,"  a 
"  crime."  But  along  with  his  detestation  of  the  Commune,  de 
Mun  in  his  memoirs  confesses  also  to  a  revulsion  of  feeling 
against  the  bloody  reprisals  in  which  the  victors  indulged. 
"  M.  Thiers,"  he  writes,  "  cherished  the  spirit  of  the  bour- 
geoisie of  1830;  he  had  no  love  for  the  people  and  his  policy 
toward  them  was  ungenerous."  Moreover,  being  charged  with 


82  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

the  official  duty  of  inquiring  among  Parisian  shopkeepers  re- 
garding the  causes  of  the  Commune,  de  Mun  was  shocked  at 
the  ignorant  indifference  of  the  bourgeoisie  toward  the  prob- 
lems of  the  poor.343 

Little  might  have  come  of  de  Mun's  observations  had  not  a 
certain  Maurice  Maignen,344  lay  brother  of  the  congregation  of 
Saint  Vincent  de  Paul,345  called  upon  the  young  officer  —  de 
Mun  was  then  thirty  years  of  age, —  and  begged  him  to  address 
a  small  Catholic  Club  of  young  workingmen  on  the  Boulevard 
Montparnasse.340  Maignen  did  not  mince  words.  Dramati- 
cally pointing  to  the  charred  ruins  of  the  Palace  of  the  Tuileries, 
which  had  been  burned  during  the  Commune,  Maignen  declared, 
"  The  persons  truly  responsible  for  the  Commune  are  you, 
the  rich,  the  great,  the  fortunate  (les  heureux  de  la  vie},  who 
have  amused  yourselves  within  these  ruined  walls;  who  pass 
by  without  seeing  the  people,  without  knowing  the  people ;  you, 
who  know  nothing  of  the  soul,  the  needs,  the  sufferings  of  the 
people."  347 

Deeply  touched  by  the  appeal,  Lieutenant  de  Mun  promised 
to  speak  at  the  Club's  next  meeting.  Accordingly,  one  wintry 
night,  bravely  accoutred  in  uniform,  with  sky-blue  cape,  silver 
epaulets,  and  sabre,  and  with  speech  carefully  written  and 
memorized,  the  young  nobleman  presented  himself  before  the 
group  of  workingmen.  It  was  his  first  public  speech.  In  the 
excitement  of  the  moment,  he  was  overcome  by  a  strange  emo- 
tion, as  though  he  were  pronouncing  some  solemn  covenant, 
as  though  he  were  dedicating  himself  irrevocably.  And  walk- 
ing out  into  the  night,  after  the  meeting,  he  felt  certain  that  this 
was  the  decisive  moment  of  his  life.  At  any  rate,  such  was  his 
recollection  thirty-seven  years  later.348 

A  fortnight  after  his  maiden  speech,  Albert  de  Mun,  with 
his  brother  Robert,  and  Maignen,  induced  La  Tour  du  Pin, 
Paul  Vrignault  (an  official  at  the  foreign  office),  Leon  Gautier 
(professor  at  the  ficole  des  Chartes  and  an  enthusiastic  admirer 
of  the  middle  ages),  Armand  Ravelet  (editor  of  the  Monde), 
and  two  members  of  the  National  Assembly,  Baron  Leonce  de 
Guiraud  (deputy  from  the  Aude),  and  Emile  Keller  (deputy 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM        83 

from  the  Haut-Rhin),  to  join  with  them  in  forming  a  "  Com- 
mittee for  the  foundation  of  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  in 
Paris."  The  Committee's  first  act  was  to  launch  an  "  Appeal 
to  Men  of  Good  Will."  349  "  The  labor  problem,"  began  the 
Appeal,  "  at  the  present  hour  is  no  longer  a  problem  to  be 
discussed  ...  it  must  be  solved."  The  remedy  proposed  was 
the  multiplication  of  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  on  a  huge 
scale  in  "  a  last  effort  to  save  the  people  [from  revolutionary 
doctrines]  and  to  hasten  the  reign  of  God  in  the  regenerated 
shop."  "  To  subversive  doctrines  and  dangerous  teachings, 
we  must  oppose  the  holy  teachings  of  the  Gospel ;  to  material- 
ism, the  notion  of  sacrifice;  to  the  cosmopolitan  spirit,  the  idea 
of  country;  to  atheistical  negation,  Catholic  affirmation." 
"  The  men  of  the  privileged  classes,"  continued  the  manifesto, 
"  have  duties  to  be  fulfilled  with  regard  to  their  brothers, 
the  workingmen;  and  society,  though  it  has  a  right  to  defend 
itself  with  arms  in  hand,  knows  that  shot  and  shell  do  not 
cure,  and  that  something  else  is  needed."  The  Appeal,  rein- 
forced by  an  article  in  Le  Figaro  (Jan.  17,  1872),  made  a  great 
sensation.  Felicitations,  contributions,  threats,  poured  into  the 
office  of  the  committee. 

Flushed  with  enthusiasm,  the  committee  resolved  that  their 
first  campaign  should  be  launched  in  the  stronghold  of  pro- 
letarian revolution,  in  Belleville,  the  worst  of  the  working-class 
districts  of  Paris,  where  the  bourgeois  hostages  had  been 
massacred,  and  the  fighting  had  been  fiercest  during  the  Com- 
mune. Albert  and  Robert  de  Mun  were  detailed  for  the  task. 
Certainly  it  was  a  curious  enterprise  for  two  young  noblemen, 
to  found  a  Workingmen's  club  in  a  district  where  they  did  not 
know  a  single  person.  Nevertheless  they  succeeded.  A  house 
in  the  Rue  Levert  was  secured  as  the  home  of  the  new  Club ; 
a  score  of  young  artisans  were  recruited  as  members;  six  or 
seven  bourgeois  consented  to  act  as  the  Council  of  Directors; 
and  a  Brother  of  Saint  Vincent  de  Paul,  as  director.350  At 
mounted  upon  the  back  of  a  chair  and  delivered  a  stirring 
speech.351  The  meeting  sang  the  Club  song,  "  neither  the 
the  formal  inauguration  of  the  Club,  April  7,  1872,  de  Mun 


84  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

verses  nor  the  music  "  of  which,  de  Mun  admits,  "  are  master- 


pieces." 352 


"  Quand    Jesus    vint    sur    la    terre, 
Ce  fut  pour  y  travailler; 
II   voulut,   touchant   mystere, 
Comme   nous   etre  ouvrier. 


CHORUS 


Esperance 

De  la  France 
Ouvriers,   soyez  chretiens ! 

Que  votre   ame 

Soit  de  flamme 
Pour  1'auteur  de  tous  les   biens!" 

The  words  of  the  chorus, —  "  In  you  the  hope  of  France  we 
see.  Workers,  you  must  Christians  be !  " —  indeed  must  have 
awakened  strange  echoes  in  the  streets  of  Belleville,  only  a 
few  minutes'  walk  from  the  spot  where  the  blood  of  an  arch- 
bishop 353  had  been  shed  by  proletarian  revolutionists.  And 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Rue  Levert  must  have  stared  in  some 
surprise  at  the  unusual  group  of  young  officers  and  aristocrats 
descending  the  hill  after  the  meeting,  "  drunk  with  victory."  354 
Victory,  indeed,  did  seem  to  smile  auspiciously  on  the  Count 
de  Mun  and  his  work  during  the  ensuing  months.  In  May 
he  was  called  upon  to  found  a  branch  of  the  "  Association  of 
Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  "  ((Euvre  des  cercles  catholiques 
d'oiwriers),  as  it  was  now  called,  at  Lyons,  where  the  seeds  of 
enthusiasm  had  been  sown  by  one  of  the  ladies  who  had  heard 
the  speech  of  April  7.355  In  June,  the  Association  invaded 
Montmartre  and  established  a  Club  near  the  site  of  the  san- 
guinary Parisian  battle  of  May  23,  1871. 356  In  August,  de 
Mun  instituted  a  Club  in  the  industrial  quarter  of  the  Croix- 
Rousse  at  Lyons,  where,  forty  years  earlier,  insurgent  working- 
men  had  raised  the  desperate  battle-cry,  "  Live  working,  or  die 
fighting."  357  A  year  later,  in  August,  1873,  the  Clubs  made 
a  pilgrimage  to  Notre-Dame-de-Liesse  (near  Laon)  ;  at  that 
time,  seven  Clubs  had  been  established  in  Paris  alone,  and  many 
others  in  Lille,  Roubaix,  Bethune,  Maubeuge,  Arras,  Laon, 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM        85 

Saint-Quentin,  and  Aire-sur-la-Lys ;  two  thousand  men  march- 
ing as  pilgrims  of  the  Association  now  thundered  out  the  chorus 
so  feebly  chanted  sixteen  months  previously  at  Belleville, — "  In 
you  the  hope  of  France  we  see.  Workers  you  must  Christians 
be !  "  358  When  the  General  Assembly  of  1875  was  convened, 
the  Association  boasted  130  committees,  150  Clubs,  and  18,000 
members, —  "  the  magnificent  fruit,"  writes  de  Mun,  "  of  three 
years  of  labor  and  apostolate."  359 

The  Association  continued  to  expand  rather  rapidly  in  the 
next  few  years,  although  it  never  attained  great  size.  By  1884 
it  boasted  400  committees  and  50,000  members.  Subsequently, 
it  seemed  to  lose  its  expansive  power,  particularly  among  the 
urban  workingmen.  By  1900,  it  had  only  60,000  members, 
more  of  whom  were  rural  than  industrial  workers.  The  failure 
of  the  Clubs  to  attract  the  industrial  workingmen  in  any  large 
numbers  was  probably  due,  as  an  unsympathetic  historian  sug- 
gests, to  the  workingmen's  "  repugnance  for  an  authoritarian 
patronage,"  and  also  to  their  distaste  for  religion.  They  were 
unwilling  to  be  patronized  by  benevolent  aristocrats.360 

Small  as  its  membership  was,  the  Association  nevertheless 
possessed  a  real  national  significance.  Its  development  was 
accompanied  by  a  nation-wide  campaign  to  rouse  the  Catholic 
upper  classes  to  their  social  duty ;  it  ultimately  made  de  Mun 
a  conspicuous  figure  in  national  politics;  it  excited  alarm  in 
anticlerical  circles;  and  it  provided  the  initial  impetus  of  the 
present-day  Social  Catholic  movement  in  France.  The  Associa- 
tion, in  short,  was  relatively  unimportant  as  an  organization, 
but  decidedly  important  as  a  starting-point  for  de  Mun's  career 
and  for  the  Social  Catholic  movement. 

Count  Albert  de  Mun,  as  secretary-general  of  the  Catholic 
Workingmen's  Clubs,  toured  the  length  and  breadth  of  France, 
everywhere  awakening  enthusiasm  by  his  fiery  eloquence.  On 
one  occasion  he  thrilled  his  audience  by  pointing  to  a  mural 
painting  of  Peter  the  Hermit  and  exclaiming,  "  Look  at  him, 
he  is  still  speaking  to  you !  "  361  Indeed,  the  bishop  of  Poitiers 
admiringly  called  de  Mun,  "  the  orator  of  a  new  crusade."  362 

The  anticlerical  press  was  stirred.     Le  Temps  (September  5, 


86  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

1897)  gave  space  on  its  front  page  to  an  account  of  this 
"  strange  missionary,  this  even  more  extraordinary  officer,"  who 
"  is  called  Captain  de  Mun."  L'Annee  politique  likewise  com- 
mented on  "  the  strange  apostolate  of  a  captain  of  cavalry, 
Count  de  Mun,  who  with  the  consent  of  the  minister  of  war, 
devoted  his  eloquence  [talent  de  paroles}  to  [founding]  com- 
mittees of  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  all  over  France."  363 
So  insistent  were  the  complaints  of  anticlericals,  that  in  1875  de 
Mun  was  compelled  to  choose  between  the  Association  and 
his  future  military  career.  He  chose  the  former.364 

At  its  inception,  the  Association  was  less  akin  to  the  spirit  of 
Ozanam  than  to  that  of  the  conservative  Joseph  de  Maistre,  of 
Le  Play,  or  of  Veuillot.  Reactionary  abhorrence  of  revolution, 
rather  than  confidence  in.  the  democratic  social  mission  of 
Christianity,  characterized  the  period  from  1871  to  1876.  At  a 
time  when  the  National  Assembly  of  France  was  with  one  hand 
sternly  suppressing  the  revolutionary  socialist  International 365 
and  with  the  other  hand  generously  increasing  the  budget  of 
worship ; 366  at  a  time  when  the  basilica  of  the  Sacred  Heart 
was  being  erected  on  blood-stained  Montmartre  to  "  expiate 
the  sins  of  Revolution,"  was  it  strange  that  the  founders  of  the 
Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  should  declare  themselves  soldiers 
of  the  "  Counter-Revolution  "?  367 

The  Counter-Revolution  was  primarily  religious.  It  meant 
the  reconquest  of  the  masses  for  Christianity;  it  meant  the 
militant  defense  of  Catholic  orthodoxy  against  the  modern 
"errors"  denned  in  Pius  IX,'s  Syllabus  of  i864.368  Tfae 
Counter-Revolution  was  likewise  a  social  movement,  in  the 
sense  that  it  aimed  by  means  of  religion  to  bridge  —  though  not 
to  close  —  the  gulf  between  rich  and  poor ;  in  this  respect  de 
Mun  and  his  associates  at  first  worshipped  a  purely  aristocratic 
ideal, — "  the  devotion  of  the  governing  class  to  the  poorer 
classes."  369  Furthermore,  the  Counter-Revolution  was  patri- 
otic ;  de  Mun  and  de  La  Tour  du  Pin  were  army  officers,  veter- 
ans of  the  Franco-Prussian  war,  and  very  emphatic  antagonists 
of  anti-patriotism  and  anti-militarism.370  And,  finally,  the 
Counter-Revolution  was  political.  Over  against  revolutionary, 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM        87 

anticlerical  republicanism,  must  be  set  Legitimist,  clerical  royal- 
ism.  The  Count  de  Mun  himself  has  confessed  that  at  the  time 
of  MacMahon's  election  (1873)  "the  Count  de  Chambord  ap- 
peared to  me  not  merely  as  the  representative  of  hereditary 
royalty,  but  as  the  living  and  crowned  embodiment  of  the 
Counter-Revolution."  "  As  a  Catholic  and  a  patriot  all  my 
heart  belonged  to  him."  Well  may  the  Count  de  Mun,  in  his 
memoirs,  affirm  that  the  Association  was  kept  free  from  mon- 
archist influence.371  Strive  as  its  leaders  might  to  maintain 
"  an  exclusively  Catholic,"  politically  neutral  attitude,  the  As- 
sociation could  hardly  have  been  other  than  royalist  in  spirit. 
In  fact,  if  we  may  believe  M.  Georges  Goyau,  the  organization 
"  was  in  effect  an  electoral  bureau  for  the  cause  of  mon- 
archy." 372 

THE  SOCIAL  ASPECT  OF  MONARCHIST  POLITICS 

De  Mun's  formal  entry  into  politics  accentuated  the  mon- 
archist and  counter-revolutionary  features  of  his  program,  but 
at  the  same  time,  as  it  will  presently  appear,  reacted  upon  his 
social  program  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  him  a  conspicuous 
advocate  of  social  legislation. 

The  ominous  republican  drift  of  by-elections  to  the  National 
Assembly,  the  enactment  of  the  Republican  constitutional  laws 
(January,  February  and  July,  1875),  and  the  rapid  rise  of  anti- 
clericalism  in  Paris,  afforded  convincing  proof  that  the  mon- 
archist-clerical-conservative cause  stood  in  desperate  need  of 
able  protagonists.373  His  extraordinary  eloquence  and  his 
demonstrated  administrative  ability  rendered  the  secretary- 
general  of  the  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  particularly  avail- 
able. In  the  spring  of  1875  he  began  to  receive  invitations  — 
from  Lille,  from  Toulouse,  from  Morbihan  —  to  become  a  can- 
didate for  election  to  the  National  Chamber  of  Deputies.374 
He  himself  was  beginning  to  feel  the  stirrings  of  political  ambi- 
tion. "  The  tribune  [of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies]  appeared 
to  me  as  the  theater  where  our  ideas,  being  affirmed  with  eclat, 
could  best  arrest  attention  and  convince  opinion.  Then,  I  saw 
the  Catholic  Church  menaced,  already  attacked  with  violence  by 


88  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

those  whose  reign  was  beginning,  and  I  burned  to  defend  it 
on  the  very  battlefield  where  it  might  be  attacked,  with  the 
weapon  that  God  had  given  me.  Finally, —  why  should  I  not 
admit  it? — a  certain  amount  of  ambition  urged  me  to  engage 
in  parliamentary  conflicts  the  oratorical  ardor  hitherto  expended 
in  private  meetings."  375 

De  Mun  entered  the  political  arena  in  1876,  when  he  became 
a  candidate  for  a  seat  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in  the  general 
election  of  February-March.  Pontivy,  in  Brittany,  was  the 
district  which  he  selected  as  the  scene  of  his  first  electoral  con- 
test. His  platform  was  primarily  clerical  and  counter-revolu- 
tionary : 

The  Revolution  today  is  seeking  to  consummate  its  work  of 
destruction  by  giving  the  death-blow  to  the  religion  of  our  fathers, 
and  everywhere  those  who  speak  in  the  name  of  the  Revolution 
openly  declare  war  on  Catholicism.376  The  religious  question  domi- 
nates political  issues.  ...  It  is  therefore  the  part  of  Catholics  to 
take  in  hand  the  defense  of  the  social  order,  and,  by  protecting  their 
religion  in  its  rights  and  its  liberty  ...  to  give  France  once  more 
the  peace  and  stability  of  which  she  stands  so  sorely  in  need.377 

Elected,  de  Mun  took  his  seat  with  the  Extreme  Right  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies.  The  strenuous  antagonist  of  "  the 
Revolution,"  however,  was  not  long  permitted  to  retain  his 
place.  Henri  Brisson,  a  Masonic  dignitary,378  upon  whom  de- 
volved the  duty  of  reporting  on  the  validation  of  de  Mun's 
election,  demanded  an  investigation.379  The  "  candidate  of  the 
court  of  Rome,"  38°  said  Brisson,  had  received  the  frank  and 
public  support  of  the  Catholic  clergy.381  Between  charge  and 
counter-charge,  the  debate  waxed  warm.  Gambetta,  ever  the 
foe  of  clericalism,  thought  the  matter  important  enough  to 
throw  his  eloquence  into  the  scales  against  de  Mun.382  A  com- 
mittee of  inquiry,  composed  exclusively  of  Republicans,383 
reported  unfavorably,384  and  although  de  Mun  produced  affi- 
davits controverting  the  committee's  allegations,  the  invalida- 
tion of  his  election  was  decided  by  a  vote  of  297  to  171,  on 
July  13,  i876.385  His  parliamentary  debut  could  not  have  been 
more  unfortunate.  The  circumstances  of  his  invalidation  led 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM        89 

him,  more  than  ever,  to  believe  that  Republicanism  was  inher- 
ently opposed  to  Catholicism,  and  that  the  anticlericals  had  un- 
justly thrown  him  out  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  because  he 
had  too  boldly  announced  his  intention  of  defending  the 
Church.386 

Returning  to  his  district,  de  Mun  was  immediately  reflected, 
in  August,  1876,  and  the  Chamber  could  hardly  refuse  to  recog- 
nize his  mandate.387  In  the  general  election,  held  in  October, 
1877,  ne  obtained  almost  twice  as  many  votes  as  his  Republican 
rival.388  His  temerity  in  declaring  war  on  the  Revolution 
amazed  the  Chamber.  On  February  21,  1878,  for  example, 
he  said, 

The  other  day  we  heard  it  affirmed  from  this  tribune, —  by  M. 
Boysset, —  that  we  were  the  enemies  of  liberty,  because  we  are  the 
enemies  of  the  Revolution. 

Very  well,  for  my  part,  I  assure  you  that, —  on  the  contrary, —  we 
save  liberty,  because  we  combat  the  Revolution. 

Where  is  the  liberty  that  you  have  given  us?  I  turn  to  the 
people  .  .  .  and  I  ask  what  the  Revolution  has  given  them. 

Ah !  I  will  tell  you :  it  has  destroyed  the  ancient  organization 
of  labor  and  has  replaced  it  with  nothing  but  the  fever  of  competi- 
tion.389 

This  last  remark,  touching  on  the  controversial  question  of 
labor  organization,  was  true  enough  to  be  resented ;  Floquet, 
one  of  the  Republicans,  could  not  refrain  from  an  angry  inter- 
jection—  "If  that  is  what  you  teach  in  your  seminaries,  you 
justify  us  a  thousand  times  over"  [in  suppressing  the  budget- 
ary appropriation  for  the  Catholic  seminaries].390 

Continuing,  de  Mun  reminded  the  Chamber  that  on  May  4, 
1877,  Gambetta  had  cried,  "  Clericalism,  that  is  the  enemy,"  391 
and  that  in  February,  1878,  another  Republican,  Boysset,  had 
asserted,  "  between  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  Republic,  no 
conciliation  is  possible." 392  A  voice  from  the  Republican 
benches  interrupted  de  Mun  with  the  remark,  "  It  is  true." 
Accepting  the  challenge,  de  Mun  went  on  to  say, — 

Very  well,  so  be  it,  it  is  true!  since  you  wish  it  to  be  so!    And 


90  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

henceforth  you  must  forget  "  clericalism "  and  say  frankly  that  the 
enemy  is  Catholicism.  .  .  . 

It  is  not  I  that  have  said  it,  but  I  accept  it  thus,  and  in  the 
future  you  will  not  be  astonished  at  our  want  of  confidence  in 
your  Republic.393 

A  few  months  later,  November  16,  1878,  the  Catholic  orator 
said  to  the  Republican  Left,  "  You  are  the  Revolution,  and  that 
is  enough  to  explain  why  we  are  the  Counter-Revolution." 
"  It  is  in  the  great  work  of  social  reform  that  the  Counter- 
Revolution  consists,  and  that  is  the  idea,  that  is  the  cause,  which 
we  serve  in  the  Association  of  Catholic  Workingmen's 
Clubs."  394 

De  Mun,  after  these  attacks,  was  again  exiled  from  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  on  the  ground  that  his  election  was  not 
valid.395  This  second  invalidation  made  him  all  the  more  bit- 
terly opposed  to  anticlerical  Republicanism.  When  he  returned 
to  the  Chamber,  in  1881,  it  was  as  one  of  the  most  aggressive 
of  Legitimists.396  His  sensational  campaign  speech  at  Vannes, 
March  8,  1881,  proclaimed  the  necessity  of  restoring  the  mon- 
archy; politically,  as  the  indispensable  means  of  reconciling 
strong  and  paternal  authority  with  true  liberty;  socially,  as 
the  instrument  of  Christian  social  reform;  patriotically,  as  the 
restorer  of  French  prestige.  A  brief  quotation  will  help  to 
explain  the  irresistible  temptation  which  de  Mun  felt  to  identify 
the  causes  of  Social  Catholicism  and  Monarchism: 

But,  in  these  troubled  spirits  .  .  .  the  dominant  feeling  ...  is 
of  deception,  of  profound  realization  of  the  bankruptcy  of  Revolu- 
tion. The  people  have  been  promised  everything :  power,  wealth, 
and  independence !  They  have  been  given  only  the  mask  of  a 
chimerical  sovereignty,  and  behind  that  mask  there  is  only  a  slave, 
a  slave  who  carries  on  his  shoulders  the  politicians  whose  fortunes 
he  has  made,  a  slave  who  belongs,  body  and  soul,  to  the  industrial 
furnace  into  which  he  is  thrown  like  so  much  coal. 

All  sorts  of  promises  have  been  made  to  the  workingman.  But 
his  leisure,  his  health,  his  old  age,  his  home,  his  future,  his  profes- 
sional interests, —  who  cares  about  them?  After  ninety  years  they 
[the  politicians]  have  gotten  to  the  point  where  they  discuss  whether 
it  is  proper  to  restore  to  the  workingman  a  part  of  the  right  of 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM        91 

association  of  which  the  Revolution  despoiled  him!  And  that  is  all 
that  they  can  do  to  attempt  to  solve  this  social  question,  this  eco- 
nomic question  which  is  the  vital  question  of  modern  times,  which 
confronts  all  the  governments  of  Europe,  and  the  importance  of 
which  ought  to  be  made  clear  by  the  public  interest,  in  the  absence 
of  a  sense  of  justice. 

Gentlemen,  I  have  spoken  of  justice.  Where  is  it  at  this  moment? 
It  is  like  liberty,  it  is  like  authority,  it  is  dead ;  the  Revolution  has 
killed  it.  ...  And  when  a  government  .  .  .  affords  neither  author- 
ity, nor  liberty,  nor  justice, —  I  ask, —  of  what  can  it  avail  itself? 

...  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  monarchy  will  suffice  by  itself 
to  solve  the  social  question ;  but  I  say  that  the  monarchy  alone  can 
fruitfully  work  at  the  task,  because  it  is  the  necessary  base  of  the 
whole  political  order.  I  do  not  say  that  the  monarchy  will  solve 
the  social  question  in  a  day,  but  I  say  that  it  will  strive  to  solve  it, 
without  relaxation,  honestly,  faithfully,  not  with  phrases,  promises, 
and  theoretical  formulas,  but  with  principles  and  institutions,  with 
encouragements  to  men  of  good  will,  with  the  practical  assistance  of 
specialists.  .  .  .397 

The  political  contest  between  Republicans  and  Monarchists 
for  the  electoral  support  of  the  masses  tended  to  accelerate  the 
development  of  de  Mun's  social  program,  especially  as  regards 
legislation,  while  temporarily  linking  that  program  with  royal- 
ism.  To  explain  the  process,  we  must  turn  back,  for  a  moment, 
and  trace  the  development  of  the  social  attitude  of  the  mon- 
archists. 

As  long  as  a  monarchist  majority  controlled  the  National 
Assembly  (1871-1876),  the  monarchists  gave  themselves  no 
very  great  concern  regarding  labor  questions.  To  be  sure, 
they  authorized  an  investigation  of  labor  conditions ;  but  of  the 
two  reports  which  were  made  on  the  subject,  one  was  never 
discussed,398  and  the  other  was  so  complacently  optimistic  that 
it  failed  to  nerve  the  Assembly  to  action.399 

Nevertheless,  one  important  reform  was  carried  through. 
A  bill  passed  by  the  Assembly  in  1874  excluded  from  "  indus- 
trial labor  in  manufactories,  factories,  mills,  mines,  and  work- 
shops "  all  children  under  twelve  years  of  age  (with  the  excep- 
tion that  in  certain  industries  children  were  allowed  to  work 
six  hours  a  day),  restricted  the  period  of  labor  to  twelve  hours 


92  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

a  day  for  young  persons  between  the  ages  of  twelve  and  six- 
teen ;  excluded  children  under  twelve,  girls,  and  women  from 
mines ;  prohibited  the  employment  of  children  at  night,  or  of 
girls  in  mills  and  factories  at  night,  or  of  children  and  girls  on 
Sundays  and  legal  holidays.400  It  is  perhaps  worth  noting  that 
the  Count  de  Melun,  a  brother  of  the  great  Catholic  charity 
organizer,  acted  as  chairman  of  the  committee  reporting  the 
bill,401  and  that  Emile  Keller,  the  Catholic  deputy  from  Belfort 
who  in  1873  had  joined  with  de  Mun  in  the  enterprise  of  found- 
ing Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs,  not  only  voted  for  the  bill, 
but  insistently  demanded  provision  for  its  more  effective  en- 
forcement.402 

The  first  elections  (1876)  under  the  Republican  constitu- 
tional laws  gave  the  Republican  groups  a  majority  in  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies,403  and  resulted  in  the  appointment  of  a  Repub- 
lican ministry,  headed  by  Jules  Simon.  Thrown  into  the  op- 
position, the  Monarchists  devoted  more  attention  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  masses.  In  June,  1876,  a  Bonapartist  and  clerical 
deputy,  Laroche-Joubert,404  whose  son,  Edgar  Jean,  later  be- 
came a  member  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  interpellated  the 
Government  regarding  its  plans,  or  lack  of  plans,  for  social 
reform.405  "  If  I  have  presented  this  interpellation,"  said  La- 
roche-Joubert, 

it  is  because,  up  to  the  present,  I  have  seen  that  this  Assembly,  and 
the  one  preceding,  were  much  occupied  with  political  questions,  with 
dynastic  competitions,  but  that  the  most  burning  question,  the  ques- 
tion that  places  us  on  a  volcano,  that  every  moment  threatens  to 
cause  an  upheaval,  has  never,  or  almost  never,  been  considered. 

I  have  believed  it  to  be  my  duty, —  I,  who  know  the  masses 
because  I  have  lived  with  them,  because  I  shared  their  lot  at  the 
beginning  of  my  career,  who  know  their  legitimate  aspirations, —  I 
have  believed  it  to  be  my  duty  to  call  the  attention  of  the  govern- 
ment to  the  necessity  of  concerning  itself  with  giving  satisfaction 
to  the  interests  of  the  most  numerous  class.  .  .  .406 

The  aged  president  of  the  council  of  ministers,  Jules  Du- 
faure,  a  typical  bourgeois  and  moderate  republican,  rebuked 
Laroche-Joubert  in  these  words: 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM        93 

.  .  .  When  you  demand  the  amelioration  of  the  material  condi- 
tion of  our  fellow-citizens,  you  encourage  in  the  country  —  permit 
me  to  say  —  ideas  which  are  not  true.  [Applause  from  the  Left 
and  Center.]  Do  not  tell  the  people  that  they  should  look  to  the 
government  for  the  amelioration  of  their  condition.  .  .  .  Tell  them 
that  what  they  should  demand  from  the  government  is  the  freedom 
and  protection  of  labor  [lively  applause  from  the  Left  and  Center.] 

Whereupon  Laroche-Joubert  sarcastically  remarked, 

I  take  notice  of  the  words  of  the  Government  and  of  its  declara- 
tion that  it  has  done  all  that  it  should  do,  when  it  has  promised 
the  country  liberty,  order,  and  a  definitive  constitution.407 

It  is  worth  noting  that  Dufaure's  reply  was  applauded  by  the 
Republican  Left  and  Center.  The  Republicans  had  much  to 
learn. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  after  the  Child  Labor  Law  of 
1874  a  whole  decade  elapsed  without  further  social  legislation. 
The  decade  1874-1884  witnessed  the  definite  triumph  of  repub- 
licanism over  monarchism,  and  the  beginning  of  the  great  con- 
flict between  clericalism  and  anticlericalism ;  but  it  was  barren 
of  social  reform.  The  explanation  is  obvious.  In  the  first 
place,  the  labor  movement  as  yet  had  neither  formulated  its 
program  precisely  nor  organized  its  tremendous  numerical  re- 
sources; in  the  second  place,  defense  of  the  Republic  against 
real  and  rumored  dangers  from  monarchism  and  clericalism 
still  furnished  bourgeois  Republican  deputies  with  the  best  of 
all  electoral  platforms  in  the  elections  of  1877  and  1881.  An 
undertone  of  social  discontent,  however,  began  to  make  itself 
audible  after  the  constitutional  crisis  of  the  Seise  Mai,  1877, 
had  been  safely  passed  and  Republicans  placed  in  control  of 
the  Republic.  Perhaps  it  was  with  some  idea  of  drowning 
this  ominous  undertone  in  the  din  of  a  new  conflict  that  in  1880 
a  Republican  cabinet  —  the  same  cabinet  which  proved  its 
veneration  of  liberty  by  declaring  July  I4th  the  national  holi- 
day of  France  —  declared  war  on  the  teaching  orders,  and 
expelled  the  Jesuits  from  their  educational  establishments.408 
At  any  rate,  such  was  the  suspicion  expressed  by  the  organ 
of  the  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs: 


94  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC' MOVEMENT 

The  campaign  undertaken  by  the  government  against  the  religious 
orders  and  against  the  liberty  of  education  is  nothing  but  an  expedi- 
ent to  divert  the  attention  of  the  electoral  masses  from  the  social 

question.409 

/ 

One  of  the  most  striking  instances  of  a  monarchist  attack 
on  the  indifference  of  the  Republican  Government  to  the  labor 
question  is  to  be  found  in  the  debates  of  March,  1881,  on  a  bill 
to  limit  the  working-day  in  industry  to  ten  hours.410  Cyprien 
Girerd,  a  Republican  of  the  Left,  speaking  for  the  Government, 
had  declared  that  no  reason  could  justify  so  grave  an  attack 
on  the  liberty  of  labor,  "  which  is  the  most  sacred  of  all  our 
liberties,"  and  had  urged  the  Chamber  to  reject  the  bill.411 

Other  Republicans 412  had  spoken  against  the  measure. 
Marcel  Barthe,  for  example,  declared  that  a  recent  inquiry  by 
the  Government  had  proved  the  Bill  to  be  "  absolutely  useless  " ; 
twelve  hours'  labor  a  day  was  not  destructive  of  the  working- 
man's  health ;  moreover,  the  hours  of  labor  tended  to  decrease 
"  by  the  natural  and  normal  development  of  our  industries." 
The  employment  of  children  in  factories  had  the  advantage 
that  "  the  fathers  and  mothers  have  the  joy  of  seeing  them 
work  before  their  eyes.  They  can  direct  them,  instruct  them, 
and  teach  them  to  work  faster  and  better."  (This  was  not 
irony  on  Barthe's  part;  it  was  earnest  argument.)  The  bill 
would  have  the  effect  of  increasing  class-division  and  antago- 
nism; hence  it  should  be  rejected.413 

Another  Republican,  Louis  A.  Hugot,  opposed  the  bill,  say- 
ing that  state  intervention  in  such  matters  was  nothing  else 
than  socialism,  and,  once  started  in  that  direction,  "  you  cannot 
tell  where  you  will  stop."  Hugot  used  the  classical  economic 
argument  against  labor  legislation : 

The  nature  of  things  is  stronger  than  all  the  laws,  all  the  decrees 
and  all  the  regulations  in  the  world,  and  .  .  .  the  legislators  may 
strive  in  vain,  for  economic  laws  cannot  be  eluded  at  will.414 

Such  statements  afforded  Emile  Keller,  a  clerical-monarchist 
deputy,  an  unequalled  opportunity  to  contrast  Republican  neg- 
lect with  Monarchist  championship  of  the  working  classes. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM        95 

The  Republican  Chamber,  he  asserted,  had  not  examined  the 
social  problem  under  any  of  its  aspects ;  the  end  of  the  session 
was  drawing  near,  and  it  was  high  time  to  treat  the  question 
with  the  gravity  it  deserved,  "  for,  at  this  moment,  the  Chamber 
is  giving  the  measure  of  its  sympathy  for  the  laborers."  He 
took  the  Government  to  task  severely  for  the  "  singular  atti- 
tude "  which  it  had  taken  in  opposing  the  bill.  "  A  Repub- 
lican government,"  he  said,  "  a  Republican  assembly,  are  in 
contradiction  with  the  principles  which  they  pretend  to  profess 
in  treating  the  labor  question  in  such  a  manner."  The  masses, 
as  he  attempted  to  demonstrate,  were  beginning  to  see  through 
the  mask  of  selfish  bourgeois  republicanism.  He  quoted  the 
complaint  raised  by  a  labor  assembly  in  1876: 

Our  bourgeoisie,  like  Lot's  wife,  stands  petrified,  motionless. 
It  occupies  the  political  offices,  the  functions  of  administration, 
and,  thanks  to  the  capital  which  it  possesses,  it  has  in  its  hand  the 
economic  world.  The  workingman,  for  his  part,  is  condemned  to  a 
subjection  a  hundred  times  more  oppressive  than  the  political  con- 
ditions against  which  our  fathers  rebelled  in  '89  and  '93. 

The  bourgeoisie  has  absolutely  discarded  the  bonds  which  for- 
merly attached  it  to  the  people,  since  it  no  longer  has  need  of  the 
people  to  overthrow  the  nobility.  .  .  . 

For  the  majority  of  the  bourgeoisie,  politics  is  only  a  means  to 
dupe  their  fellow-citizens  and  to  obtain  their  votes.  They  practise 
politics  without  sincerity  and  traffic  in  democratic,  socialist,  or  other 
ideas  just  as  the  capitalist  traffics  in  leather,  iron,  or  copper  goods. 
Once  in  power,  they  are  our  worst  enemies. 

In  1880,  Keller  continued,  workingmen  at  Lyons  had  de- 
clared that  "  the  first  act  of  the  bourgeoisie,  once  it  had  gained 
control  of  the  government,  was  to  betray  its  former  ally  [the 
proletariat]  and  to  monopolize  the  benefit  of  the  Revolution  by 
substituting  itself  for  the  fallen  class  [the  nobility].  .  .  .  The 
poverty  of  the  workers  has  increased  in  direct  proportion  as 
the  wealth  of  the  new  possessors,  and  ten  years  of  the  Republic 
have  made  no  change.  .  .  ." 

"  Well,  gentlemen,"  said  Keller,  "  it  is  not  by  repression,  it 
is  not  by  dry  and  hard  refusals,  such  as  we  have  heard  from  the 
lips  of  the  under-secretary  of  state,  that  we  shall  succeed  in 


96  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

directing  the  aspirations  of  the  working  class ;  we  must  examine 
their  demands  closely;  we  must  see  what  they  contain  that  is 
right,  and  give  them  satisfaction  in  just  and  legitimate  meas- 
ure." 415 

As  regards  the  specific  question  before  the  house,  the  regula- 
tion of  hours  of  labor,  Keller  submitted  a  counter-proposition, 
which  was  more  radical,  in  several  important  respects,  than  the 
bill  originally  reported  by  the  committee:  (i)  it  provided  a 
maximum  working  week  of  61  hours,  whereas  the  committee's 
bill  would  have  permitted  70  (ten  hours  a  day)  ;  (2)  it  ap- 
plied to  mines  as  well  as  to  factories  and  mills;  (3)  it  pro- 
hibited the  employment  of  women  at  night  and  the  employment, 
day  or  night,  of  women  in  the  first  month  after  child-birth; 
(4)  it  provided  more  severe  penalties.416  Keller  had  the  satis- 
faction of  seeing  provisions  for  limitation  of  the  working- 
week  to  six  days,  and  for  prohibition  of  the  employment  of 
women  at  night,  incorporated  in  the  text  finally  adopted  by  the 
Chamber  but  the  bill  as  voted  applied  only  to  young  persons 
and  women,  and  established  66  hours  as  the  maximum  week.417 

In  the  same  debate,  Keller  took  occasion  to  discuss  the  ques- 
tion of  the  guild  organization  of  industry.  As  he  was  an 
associate  of  de  iMun's  in  the  enterprise  of  founding  Catholic 
Workingmen's  Clubs,  it  is  not  surprising  that  he  should  express 
similar  views.  The  debate,  said  Keller,  had  clearly  revealed 
one  dominant  fact,  and  that  was  the  lamentable  turn  of  events, 
as  concerned  labor,  since  1791.  "  The  famous  law  of  1791," 
abolishing  the  guilds,  had  established  the  liberty  of  the  em- 
ployer, the  liberty  of  capital,  but  had  destroyed  the  liberty  of 
the  workingman,  who  had  hitherto  enjoyed  the  right  of  asso- 
ciation. In  defence  of  his  thesis  that  abolition  of  the  guilds 
was  a  mistake,  Keller  cited  the  following  passage  from  Louis 
Blanc : 

.  .  .  The  guilds  had  been  formed  under  the  dominant  influence  of 
the  Christian  spirit.  A  passion,  which  no  longer  exists  in  our  man- 
ners and  customs,  or  in  public  affairs,  at  that  period  brought  condi- 
tions and  men  closer  together :  this  passion  was  charity.  The  life 
of  the  workingman  was  not  troubled,  by  bitter  jealousies,  by  the 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM  97 

necessity  of  hating  his  fellow-being,  by  the  pitiless  desire  to  ruin 
him  by  surpassing  him. 

While  frankly  admitting  that  in  many  respects  abuses  had 
crept  into  the  guild  system,  before  its  abolition  in  1791,  and 
denying  that  he  was  a  partisan  of  the  restoration  of  the  old 
regime,  Keller  voiced  his  strong  conviction  that  the  law  of  1791, 
in  forbidding  all  association,  all  organization  of  labor,  was  in 
large  measure  responsible  for  the  alarming  turn  which  the  labor 
problem  had  taken.418 

This  is  the  characteristic  feature  of  the  monarchist  social 
philosophy  of  the  period ;  it  is  the  view  emphatically  stated  by 
no  less  a  personage  than  the  Legitimist  pretender.  The  Legiti- 
mist pretender,  the  Count  of  Chambord,  was  distinctly  aware  of 
the  value  of  a  social  reform  program  as  a  political  asset.  His 
Letter  on  Labor  (1865)  nad  portrayed  the  monarchy  as  the 
historic  protector  of  the  right  of  labor  to  organize, —  a  right 
which  the  Revolution  had  destroyed.419  Shortly  after  the  Com- 
mune (1871),  in  a  solemn  manifesto,  Chambord  had  declared, 

It  is  the  laboring  classes,  these  workingmen  in  field  and  town,  who 
have  suffered  most  from  this  social  disorder ;  their  condition  is  the 
subject  of  my  most  earnest  attention  and  of  my  favorite  studies.420 

Six  months  later,  in  another  declaration,  he  had  dramatically 
asked,  who,  besides  a  hereditary  monarch,  "  will  assure  to 
the  working  classes  the  benefits  of  peace,  to  the  working  man 
the  dignity  of  his  life,  the  fruits  of  his  labor,  and  security  for 
his  old  age  ?  "  421  By  such  promises  Chambord  endeavored  "  to 
prove  to  France  and  principally  to  the  working  classes,  on 
which  side  are  to  be  found  their  true  friends  and  the  constant 
champions  of  all  their  interests."  422 

Count  Albert  de  Mun,  who  had  appeared  in  the  political 
arena  at  precisely  the  moment  (1876)  when  the  monarchists 
had  lost  their  majority  in  parliament,  was  just  the  spokesman 
that  the  Count  de  Chambord  needed.  As  secretary-general  of 
the  Association  of  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs,  de  Mun  had 
acquired  a  preeminent  position  as  an  exponent  of  Catholic  ideas 


98  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

of  social  reform,  and  as  a  critic  of  the  existing  capitalistic 
regime.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  to  find  Chambord  writing 
to  de  Mun, 

Among  these  working  classes,  who  are  the  constant  object  of  my 
attention ;  among  these  dear  workingmen  surrounded  by  so  many 
flatterers  and  so  few  true  friends,  you  better  than  any  one  else  can 
serve  as  my  interpreter.  .  .  .  Let  them  know  well  that  I  love  them 
too  well  to  flatter  them,  and,  to  express  my  whole  idea  in  a  word, 
repeat  to  them  incessantly  that  God  must  return  to  France  as  master, 
in  order  that  I  may  reign  there  as  king,  in  order  that  France  may 
be  saved.423 

The  task  of  acting  as  the  Pretender's  "  interpreter  "  to  the 
working-classes,  and  as  the  spokesman  of  Catholic  social  ideas 
in  parliament,  had  a  marked  effect  in  clarifying  de  Mun's 
thought  and  in  giving  his  program  a  practical  trend.  From 
the  beginning,  de  Mun  and  his  associates  in  directing  the  work 
of  the  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  had  made  the  principle  of 
association  (among  workingmen,  capitalists  and  philanthropic 
aristocrats)  the  first  article  of  their  social  program.  In  their 
first  manifesto,  they  had  characterized  the  workingmen's  club 
as  "  the  threshold  of  the  future  edifice,  and  the  living  type  of 
the  Catholic  labor  associations  that  we  shall  see  flourishing 
some  day."  424  The  conception  had  been  vaguely  presented  in 
de  Mun's  speech  at  the  inauguration  of  the  first  club  founded 
by  the  Association  in  1872. 425  Gradually  the  idea  had  taken  the 
form  of  a  definite  conviction  that  the  medieval  craft  guilds, 
abolished  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  should  be  restored  in 
modern  industry.426  Still,  in  1876,  de  Mun  had  been  none  too 
specific :  the  guilds,  he  had  asserted,  "  will  spontaneously  arise 
as  they  should  be,  and  they  will  always  be  good  and  legitimate 
because  they  will  be  Christian."  "  As  to  their  form  and  their 
statutes,"  he  lamely  added,  "  it  is  not  for  us,  but  rather  for 
practice  and  experience,  to  determine  them."  427 

After  his  entry  into  politics,  de  Mun  became  both  more  out- 
spoken in  his  denunciation  of  the  existing  regime  and  more 
precise  in  his  program  for  the  future.  His  attacks  on  the 
existing  regime  of  anarchical  capitalist  competition  were  no 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM  99 

less  candid  than  those  of  the  socialists.  In  competitive  indus- 
try, he  declared,  "the  workingman  is  used  like  the  coal  which 
is  shovelled  into  the  engine.  .  .  ."  *28  "  I  hear  people  pro- 
claiming absolute  liberty  of  labor  as  the  principle  of  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  people,"  he  said,  "  and  I  see  that  in  practise  it 
leads  to  the  enslavement  of  the  people."  429  The  Revolution, 
in  the  name  of  liberty,  had  destroyed  the  ancient  organization 
of  labor  instead  of  reforming  it.  Laissez  faire!  Laissez  pas- 
ser! the  "  magic  formula  of  liberal  economy,"  had  served  to 
cover  the  abuse  of  force.  As  a  result, 

the  fever  of  speculation  invaded  everything;  merciless  conflict  took 
the  place  of  fecund  emulation;  hand-industry  was  crushed;  profes- 
sional labor  falls  into  decadence ;  wages  shrink ;  pauperism  spreads 
like  a  hideous  leprosy ;  the  exploited  laborer  feels  the  ferment  of  an 
implacable  hatred  growing  in  his  heart;  he  has  no  refuge  except  in 
resistance  and  no  recourse  except  to  war ;  the  coalition  and  the  strike 
take  the  place  of  the  organization  of  labor.430 

To  say  such  things  before  a  great  assembly  of  workingmen 
was  dangerous.  De  Mun  was  rebuked  by  conservatives ;  he 
was  accused  of  socialism.  "  We  are  called  socialists,"  he  said, 
"  because  we  recognize  what  there  is  of  justice  in  the  demands 
of  the  workers."  Admitting  that  he  had  seen,  and  commiser- 
ated, the  sufferings  of  the  working  class,  de  Mun  vehemently 
denied  the  charge  of  socialism ;  socialism  was  the  4<  logical 
Revolution,"  and  he  stood  for  the  Counter-Revolution.431 

Merely  denouncing  abuses  was  not  sufficient :  a  positive  pro- 
gram was  needed.  "  It  is  not  enough  to  talk,"  he  said,  "  we 
must  act  and  put  in  practice  the  labor  reform  we  have  under- 
taken. The  abolition  of  the  right  of  industrial  organization 
was  the  consequence  of  the  principles  of  liberty  of  labor;  we 
purpose  to  reconquer  that  right."  Industrial  organization 
should  take  the  form  of  "  the  Catholic  guild,  which  is  neither  a 
trade-union,  nor  a  tribunal  of  arbitration,  but  a  center  of 
Christian  activity  where  the  interest  of  the  profession  is  su- 
perior to  private  interest,  where  antagonism  between  capitalist 
and  workingman  gives  way  to  patronage  exercised  in  a  Chris- 
tian spirit  and  freely  accepted."  432 


100  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

What  we  demand,  is  the  right  for  masters  and  men  to  form 
freely  together  professional  associations  united  by  the  bond  of 
Christian  confraternity  and  common  interests,  in  order  to  remedy 
the  antagonism  which  divides  them,  the  isolation  which  leaves  the 
laborers  without  protection  against  the  abuses  of  competition  which 
lead  to  the  decadence  of  the  trade.433 

The  guild  idea  was  primarily  applicable  to  small  industries, 
to  the  arts  and  crafts,  but  the  same  principle  must  govern  the 
great  industries  in  which  machine-production  had  been  intro- 
duced. 

If  from  the  arts  and  crafts,  that  is  to  say,  the  professions  in  which 
.  .  .  the  human  being  has  not  become  an  accessory  of  the  machine, 
we  pass  to  industry,  to  the  establishments  in  which  mechanical 
motor  forces  are  predominantly  employed,  the  situation  is  doubtless 
delicate,  and  the  applications  will  consequently  be  different;  but  the 
cause  of  the  evil  is  the  same,  and  the  principles  from  which  the 
remedy  must  be  drawn  subsist  in  their  integrity.  It  is  always  the 
same  thought :  limit  competition,  associate  common  interests,  im- 
pose upon  the  employer  the  duties  of  patronage,  uplift  labor  and 
the  condition  of  the  laborer.  .  .  ,434 

De  Mun  demanded  not  only  labor  organization,  but  labor 
legislation.  The  Christian  moral  law  forbade  the  sacrifice  of 
the  body  and  soul  of  the  workingman  to  the  production  of 
wealth. 

In  the  name  of  this  morality,  we  demand  that  his  [the  laborer's] 
work  should  not  be  excessive,  and  that  his  hours  of  labor  should 
be  regulated  otherwise  than  by  the  law  of  interest  and  of  the  neces- 
sities of  competition ;  we  demand  that  his  wife  shall  be  permitted 
to  remain  the  mistress  of  his  home  and  shall  not  be  engulfed  with 
him  in  the  whirl  of  labor  without  limits ;  we  demand  that  his  child 
shall  grow  up  apart  from  this  fever  which  devours  his  body  pre- 
maturely and  withers  his  soul ;  we  demand,  finally,  that  the  work- 
ingman shall  regain  possession  of  what  has  so  justly  been  called  the 
great  charter  of  his  independence,  the  right  to  rest  on  Sunday.435 

This  program,  formulated  in  1878-1879,  became  more  specific 
in  1882.  In  a  speech  at  the  tenth  general  assembly  of  the 
Workingmen's  Clubs,  May  7,  1882,  de  Mun  described  the  guild 
as  follows: 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM       IOI 

The  guild  as  we  conceive  it  is  a  community  formed  among  em- 
ployers and  workingmen  of  the  same  profession,  held  together,  first 
of  all,  by  acceptance  of  the  principle  of  social  justice,  which  im- 
poses on  the  former  as  well  as  on  the  latter  reciprocal  duties : 
that  is  the  moral  bond ;  and  united  by  a  common  possession,  by  a 
corporate  property  arising  from  the  voluntary  sacrifices  of  both 
(classes)  :  that  is  the  material  bond.  .  .  . 

To  administer  its  affairs,  to  govern  it,  there  is  a  trade  board 
(conseil  syndical)  elected  by  the  association  and  composed  of  em- 
ployers, workingmen  and  that  element  of  the  upper  class  whose 
special  role  I  have  described.436  The  trade  board  governs  the  guild, 
morally  and  materially ;  it  discusses  common  interests ;  it  adminis- 
ters the  collective  property  and  economic  institutions  [presumably, 
social  insurance  against  accidents,  old  age,  etc.]  ;  it  supervises  the 
preservation  of  the  homestead  and  the  education  of  the  children; 
it  is,  in  short,  the  guardian  of  the  community.  .  .  . 

For  these  professional  communities,  freely  formed,  raised  up  by 
private  initiative,  sustained  by  the  family  spirit,  and  invested  with 
property  rights  in  the  guild  property  [patrimoine  corporatif],  we 
demand  legal  existence,  not  toleration,  but  the  sanction  of  law  for 
their  regulations.437 

Moreover,  de  Mun  has  caught  an  anticipatory  glimpse  of 
the  scheme  of  professional  representation  which  was  subse- 
quently to  be  so  widely  discussed : 

We  have  greater  ambitions  and  still  larger  visions ;  and  when  one 
thinks  what  the  world  of  labor  might  be,  thus  organized,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  perceive  how  the  guild,  when  legally  existing,  might  in 
the  future  become  the  basis  of  a  sincere,  fair,  and  true  representa- 
tion of  interests  in  the  domain  of  politics.438 

In  the  same  year  de  Mun  asserted  the  necessity  of  social 
legislation, —  "  a  legislation  which  will  respect  divine  law,  pro- 
tect the  weak,  limit  the  fever  of  competition,  prevent  excessive 
labor,  and,  by  giving  the  laborers  their  Sunday  holiday,  pre- 
serve their  souls  and  their  bodies."  439 

DE  MUN'S  ADVOCACY  OF  SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  IN  THE 
CHAMBER  OF  DEPUTIES,  1883-1891 

In  the  great  debate  of  1883  on  the  legalization  of  trade- 
unionism,440  de  Mun's  oration 441  against  economic  individual- 


102  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

ism  and  in  favor  of  the  guild  organization  of  industry  created 
nothing  less  than  a  sensation.  He  was  the  first  speaker  to 
take  the  floor,  and  his  ideas  were  so  aggressively  and  emphati- 
cally stated  that  the  debate  proved  to  be  more  a  discussion  of 
his  views  than  a  deliberation  on  the  technical  provisions  of  the 
bill. 

The  fundamental  cause  of  the  modern  labor  problem,  he 
maintained,  was  the  false  doctrine  of  the  Liberal  or  individual- 
istic economists.  Leaving  aside  the  generous  intentions  and 
magnificent  phrases  which  had  filled  men  with  enthusiasm  for 
liberty,  he  said,  there  was  a  doctrine  which  could  not  be  over- 
looked. "  I  mention  it,"  he  said, 

because  in  my  opinion  it  is  still,  and  in  a  very  large  measure,  the 
cause  of  the  malady  from  which  the  world  of  labor  is  suffering. 
It  is  the  doctrine  which  consisted  in  considering  labor  as  a  com- 
modity instead  of  regarding  it  as  an  act  of  human  life,  the  noblest 
of  all, —  an  act  for  which  rules  could  not  be  traced  without  consider- 
ing the  man  who  is  its  author. 

The  principle  established,  all  the  rest  follows  as  a  logical  sequence 
If  labor  is  in  fact  a  commodity,  once  it  is  delivered  he  who  sells  it 
and  he  who  buys  are  quit ;  hence  there  are  no  longer  any  reciprocal 
duties  between  employer  and  workingman ;  the  interest  of  the 
former  is  to  buy  at  the  lowest  price,  and  the  interest  of  the  latter 
is  to  sell  at  the  highest  price ;  therefore  the  struggle  between  capital 
and  labor  arises. 

They  [the  economists]  forgot  that!  They  were  enthusiastic  for 
theories  without  weighing  the  practical  consequences  sufficiently. 
And  when  a  system  was  built  upon  the  law  which  a  celebrated 
economist,  Cobden,  formulated  in  the  sentence, —  "  When  two  work- 
ers are  trying  to  get  a  wage,  wages  decline ;  when  two  employers 
are  trying  to  get  one  workingman,  wages  rise."  —  they  did  not 
think  what  miseries  are  accumulated  in  the  first  of  these  alterna- 
tives, "  wages  -decline,"  and  what  industrial  crises,  that  is  to  say, 
after  all,  new  miseries,  are  implied  by  the  second :  "  wages  rise." 

Thus  it  has  come  about  that  not  only  is  the  individual  working- 
man  isolated  from  his  fellows,  his  interests  being  opposed  to  theirs, 
but  also  a  grievous  division  has  been  created  between  those  who 
purchase  labor,  that  is  to  say,  the  employers,  on  one  side,  and  on 
the  other  side  those  who  sell  it,  that  is  to  say,  the  workingmen. 
This  is  a  new  situation.  .  .  . 

This  social  situation  has  received  a  name,  it  is  individualism,  and 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM       103 

it  is  the  plague  which  infects  our  diseased  society,  from  top  to  bot- 
tom. An  illustrious  English  statesman,  Mr.  Gladstone,  has  said 
that  this  century  would  be  called  the  century  of  the  workingmen. 
That  is  true  if  you  mean  that  the  history  of  this  century  is  filled 
with  the  echoes  of  their  sufferings  and  of  their  vain  attempts  to 
escape  the  yoke  of  individualism. 

The  mistaken  idea  of  economic  liberty  or  individualism  had 
led  the  Constituent  Assembly  to  abolish  the  guilds  in  1791  and 
to  prohibit  any  industrial  organization  to  take  their  place.  In 
showing  how  this  policy  had  resulted  in  the  oppression  and 
degradation  of  the  laboring  classes,  de  Mun  quoted  socialist 
writings  with  telling  effect.  But,  socialistic  as  his  indictment  of 
the  capitalist  regime  might  sound,  he  could  not  sympathize 
with  the  socialists  in  their  proposals  for  reform.  "  In  my 
opinion,  and  I  say  this  without  wishing  to  offend  any  one,"  he 
said,  the  socialist  program  "  is  the  most  dangerous  of  chimeras 
and  would  lead  to  the  worst  of  despotisms." 

Turning  to  the  bourgeois  parties,  de  Mun  demanded, 

What  have  you  done  to  avert  this  peril?  .  .  .  What  have  you  done, 
in  the  last  half-century,  to  appease  the  regrets  of  the  workingmen, 
and  to  remedy  the  plague  of  isolation  which  preys  upon  them?  .  .  . 
Since  you  have  been  in  power,  what  have  you  done  to  lessen  the 
evil,  to  prevent  the  explosion?  When,  at  what  moment,  have  you 
concerned  yourselves  with  the  situation  of  labor?  When  you  were 
absolutely  compelled  to  do  so ;  when  the  crisis  burst  out  before  your 
eyes,  under  your  very  feet,  so  to  speak ;  but  until  then  you  spent 
your  time  in  political  quarrels,  in  the  scramble  for  cabinet  offices. 

And  even  now  the  Government  had  no  sound  program.  Co- 
operative production,  which  seemed  to  be  regarded  as  a  panacea, 
had  been  tried  in  practice  and  had  proved  to  be  successful  only 
in  special  situations ;  it  was  not  a  remedy  which  could  be  applied 
to  industry  in  general,  and  even  where  successful  it  did  not 
touch  the  root  of  the  problem,  since  cooperative  production 
enterprises  soon  became  in  effect  capitalist  organizations,  in 
which  the  shareholders  hired  employees. 

Coming  to  the  question  of  trade  unions,  de  Mun  expressed 
his  belief  that  the  legal  recognition  of  trade  unions  might  in 


104  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

some  measure  relieve  the  existing  situation,  but  he  could  not  see 
how  it  would  remove  the  division  and  antagonism  between 
capitalists  and  laborers. 

What  is  lacking  in  the  unions  as  you  conceive  them  —  unions  of 
employers  or  unions  of  workingmen,  but  isolated  and  separated 
from  one  another  —  is  precisely  what  is  the  great  want,  the  great 
social  necessity  of  our  times,  and  what  existed  at  the  basis  of  the 
old  guild  institutions,  namely,  personal  contact,  conciliation  of  in- 
terests, appeasement,  which  cannot  be  had  except  by  the  reconstruc- 
tion of  the  industrial  family. 

Under  the  proposed  law,  the  labor  unions  would  be  unable  to 
realize  a  genuine,  permanent  amelioration  of  labor  conditions. 
Employers'  unions  would  be  formed  to  resist  labor  unions. 
In  the  clash  of  organized  interests,  the  employers  would  tend 
more  and  more  to  forget  their  social  duty.  Capital  and  labor 
would  be  organized  for  war,  and  "  in  this  impious  war,  every- 
body will  suffer:  the  workers  first,  because  they  are  weaker; 
the  masters,  also,  who  little  by  little  will  be  ruined ;  and  finally, 
the  country.  .  .  ." 

Therefore,  in  addition  to  permitting  the  legal  organization 
of  separate  labor  unions  and  employers'  unions,  the  Chamber 
should  grant  special  encouragement  to  unions  which  brought 
employers  and  workingmen  together  in  a  common  organiza- 
tion. Such  mixed  unions  {syndic at s  mixtes)  should  be  em- 
powered to  receive  bequests  and  legacies,  to  establish  collective 
funds,  to  create  institutions  for  insurance  against  sickness,  un- 
employment, accidents,  old  age.  Unions  of  this  type  were  best 
suited  to  improve  the  conditions  of  the  workingmen,  to  cultivate 
a  spirit  of  social  responsibility  among  employers,  and  to  remove 
the  causes  of  antagonism  between  capital  and  labor.  Such 
unions,  in  fact,  were  the  most  promising  modern  substitute  for 
the  medieval  guilds.  Moreover,  they  responded  to  a  real  desire 
on  the  part  of  the  employers  and  laborers  alike ;  in  support  of 
this  assertion,  de  Mun  presented  petitions  signed  by  more  than 
six  thousand  five  hundred  employers  and  workingmen. 

The  amendment  which  de  Mun  and  his  friends  presented,  to 
give  effect  to  the  ideas  which  have  been  summarized,  was  not 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM       105 

accepted  by  the  Chamber.  The  Republicans  regarded  the  pro- 
posal with  undisguised  suspicion;  de  Mun,  they  knew,  was  a 
clerical,  and  his  mixed  unions,  they  asserted,  were  designed 
to  strengthen  the  hold  of  clericalism  and  monarchism  on  the 
masses.  Perhaps  the  following  sentences  from  a  speech  by 
Lockroy  will  give  the  flavor  of  the  Republican  replies  to  de 
Mun.  Asserting  that  de  Mun's  scheme  was  nothing  less  than 
a  clerical  conspiracy  against  the  work  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, Lockroy  said, 

Never,  perhaps,  has  an  enterprise  of  this  kind  been  more  elo- 
quently defended,  more  cleverly  conducted,  and  more  dangerous  for 
society.  They  [de  Mun  and  his  followers]  rely  on  a  true  fact; 
they  rely  on  the  difficult  situation  in  which  workers  and  capitalists 
have  momentarily  been  placed  by  unemployment  and  foreign  com- 
petition ;  they  rely  on  a  true  sentiment,  that  is,  the  desire  of  capital- 
ists and  laborers  to  organize  and  to  end  a  struggle  ruinous  to  both ; 
they  rely  on  this  fact  and  this  true  sentiment  to  attack  the  present 
regime  and  to  demand  that  we  say  our  mea  culpa  for  the  French 
Revolution,  return  to  the  institutions  of  the  past,  and  destroy  the 
great  work  of  Turgot  and  the  revolutionary  assemblies.  .  .  . 

I  wonder  whether  it  beseems  a  representative  of  the  monarchy, 
a  representative  of  clericalism,  to  stand  before  this  assembly  and 
take  the  part  of  the  workingmen  against  us.442 

In  the  trade-union  debate  of  1883,  de  Mun  sprang  at  a  single 
bound  into  the  front  rank  of  orators  on  social  questions  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies.  Thenceforward,  he  took  an  important 
part  in  most  deliberations  on  labor  problems,  and  continually 
reaffirmed  his  principles,  with  more  and  more  specific  applica- 
tions. 

On  January  14,  1884,  in  the  course  of  a  debate  on  trade- 
boards  in  mining  industries,  he  again  put  forward  the  guild 
organization,  combining  workers  and  employers  and  containing 
within  itself  the  natural  means  of  arbitration,  as  the  true 
remedy  for  labor  unrest.443 

In  a  debate  on  January  25,  1884,  regarding  the  Government's 
program  for  the  alleviation  of  the  labor  crisis,  he  renewed  his 
charge  that  -the  Republican  Government  was  neglecting  the 
workingmen.  He  cited  statistics  and  quoted  economists  to 


106  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

prove  the  gravity  of  the  situation.  In  the  face  of  existing 
discontent,  unemployment,  poverty  and  industrial  anarchy,  the 
Government  was  doing  little  or  nothing.  "  It  is  not  for  me  to 
explain,"  he  said,  "  who  is  responsible  for  the  fact  that  as  yet 
no  definite  law  in  favor  of  the  laborers  has  been  sanctioned 
by  the  republican  assemblies."  Addressing  the  Government,  he 
asked, 

Will  you  at  once  begin  the  laborious,  difficult  task  of  legislation  for 
the  protection  of  the  workers?  It  has  been  said  with  truth,  that 
there  were  a  large  number  of  bills  in  your  portfolios,  but  they 
have  been  slumbering  there  for  the  last  three  years. 

Will  you  study  the  creation  of  a  corporative  [guild]  organization 
of  labor,  based  on  the  union  of  masters  and  men?  We  have  asked 
you  to  provide  the  means ;  you  refused ;  but  we  still  demand  them. 

He  proposed,  besides  the  guild,  national  and  international  labor 
legislation ;  he  hoped  that  France  would  welcome  and  act  upon 
the  Swiss  proposal  for  an  international  congress  on  labor 
legislation.  He  also  advocated  the  encouragement  of  con- 
sumers' cooperative  societies.444 

Accident  insurance,  said  de  Mun  on  October  20,  1884,  should 
be  based  upon  labor  organizations  rather  than  upon  the  admin- 
istrative bureaucracy  of  the  government.  Invoking  the  ex- 
ample of  the  law  recently  passed  by  the  German  Reichstag,  he 
urged  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  to  adopt  a  system  of  accident 
insurance  administered  by  unions.  Such  a  system  would  be 
the  safest  and  most  effective  method  of  insurance,  and  it  would 
be  a  step  in  the  direction  of  guild  organization.  Furthermore, 
he  added,  it  would  in  no  way  outrage  justice  to  make  accident 
insurance  compulsory ;  compulsory  insurance  was  "  perhaps  the 
only  practical  and  truly  efficacious  method  of  solving  this  grave 
social  difficulty."  445 

In  a  debate  on  November  20,  1884,  regarding  the  labor 
crisis  in  Paris,  de  Mun  intervened  to  make  another  plea  for 
the  guild,  and  to  deliver  another  warning  against  the  Govern- 
ment's policy. 

What  means  this  universal  complaint  regarding  the  disorganization 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM  107 

of  labor?    That  the  social  institutions  which  we  lack  are  needed. 

Well,  gentlemen,  every  time  we  take  up  these  questions,  you 
know  what  happens.  We  run  up  against  the  stone  wall  of  impotence. 
In  this  Chamber  all  questions  of  providence,  against  accident, 
against  sickness,  against  old  age,  have  been  discussed ;  what  has 
been  the  result?  Nothing. 

If  the  Government  persisted  in  refusing  to  foster  a  construc- 
tive labor  organization,  it  would  be  compelled  to  adopt  palliative 
measures  to  relieve  labor  troubles,  and  such  measures  would 
take  on  more  and  more  a  state-socialistic  character:  the  choice 
must  be  made  between  healthy  industrial  organization  and  state 
socialism.  "  Every  time,  gentlemen,  ithat  one  mentions  state 
socialism  to  you,  you  cry  out  in  protest ;  nevertheless,  you  are 
being  pushed  towards  it  inevitably,  by  the  force  of  events,  by 
the  economic  situation  which  presses  upon  you  from  every 
quarter;  you  can  escape  from  anarchy  only  by  throwing  your- 
selves into  state  socialism."  446 

The  progress  de  Mun  had  made  toward  formulating  a  prac- 
tical program  of  labor  legislation  may  be  estimated  by  the  plat- 
form which  he  sketched,  in  1885,  as  the  basis  for  a  clerical 
party,  a  "  Catholic  Union,"  which  at  the  time  he  dreamed  of 
founding.447  The  party  would  maintain  (i)  for  the  Church, 
liberty  and  security;  (2)  for  the  Family,  liberty  of  religious 
education,  the  sanctity  of  marriage,448  and  protection  of  the 
homestead;449  (3)  "for  the  People, —  the  limitation  of  labor 
by  the  legal  establishment  of  the  Sunday  holiday;  the  prohibi- 
tion of  night  work  for  women  and  the  progressive  suppression 
of  factory  work  for  mothers  and  for  children  of  both  sexes ; 
protective  legislation  against  accidents,  sickness,  involuntary  un- 
employment, and  the  inability  to  work  resulting  from  old  age ; 
and,  to  render  this  legislation  practical  and  efficacious,  a  cor- 
porative [guild]  organization  of  labor  destined,  in  the  words  of 
the  Encyclical  Humanitm  Genus,  '  to  protect  under  the  aegis  of 
religion  the  interests  of  labor  and  the  morals  of  the  working- 
men  '."  45° 

The  projected  Catholic  party  never  materialized.  It  was 
not  reactionary  enough,  in  its  political  program,  to  suit  some 


108  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

clericals ;  it  was  too  much  so  to  suit  others.  The  papal  nuncio, 
considering  the  scheme  inopportune,  advised  de  Mun  to  aban- 
don it;  and  de  Mun  renounced  his  project.451  The  bourgeois 
Republican  anticlericals  were  to  continue  in  power,  while  the 
Catholics  remained  divided;  and,  as  regards  social  legislation, 
dreary  decades  were  to  elapse,  during  which  the  Republicans, 
while  talking  much  of  labor  problems,  made  painfully  slow 
progress  in  actual  social  legislation.  Some  of  the  reforms  out- 
lined by  de  Mun  in  1885  were  accomplished  in  fragmentary  and 
hesitant  fashion :  —  the  restriction  of  female  and  child  labor,  by 
the  laws  of  1892,  1900,  1909;  accident  compensation,  by  the 
law  of  1898;  old  age  assistance,  in  1905;  old  age  pensions,  in 
1910;  the  Sunday  holiday,  in  1906. 

After  the  failure  of  his  project  for  a  Catholic  party,  de  Mun 
devoted  more  of  his  attention  to  the  elaboration  of  his  social 
program.  In  the  years  1886  to  1889  he  presented,  in  concert 
with  a  small  group  of  his  friends  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
a  series  of  remarkable  bills  embodying  his  ideas.  In  some 
respects  these  bills  were  not  as  radical  as  those  which  socialists 
were  presenting  at  the  same  time,  but  they  were  unquestionably 
much  more  radical  than  the  measures  that  the  republican  ma- 
jority was  willing  to  enact. 

De  Mun's  Bill  for  the  Regulation  of  Labor,  presented  on 
February  20,  1886,  proposed  as  "  a  minimum  of  very  insuffi- 
cient reforms  " :  reduction  of  the  working-day  to  eleven  hours 
for  adult  laborers  (the  legal  limit  was  then  twelve  hours  and 
was  not  enforced)  452 ;  observation  of  Sundays  and  legal  holi- 
days as  days  of  rest;  reduction  of  the  working-day  to  eight 
hours  on  Saturdays  and  on  days  preceding  holidays;  absolute 
prohibition  of  the  industrial  employment  of  children  under 
twelve  years  of  age  (the  existing  law  prohibited  employment  of 
children  under  ten  years  of  age)  ;  requirement  of  a  medical 
certificate  of  fitness  for  employment  of  children  between  twelve 
and  sixteen  years  of  age;  prohibition  of  the  employment  of 
girls  under  fourteen  years  of  age  in  factories ;  exclusion  of 
girls  and  women  from  heavy  labor  and  from  shops  in  which 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM        109 

toxic  substances  were  handled;  non-employment  of  mothers 
during  the  four  weeks  after  childbirth.453 

Another  bill,  likewise  presented  by  de  Mun  and  his  associ- 
ates in  1886,  provided  compulsory  sickness  insurance  and  old 
age  pensions  for  workingmen.  The  insurance  and  pension 
funds  were  to  be  raised  by  joint  contributions  of  workingmen 
and  employers,  the  workingmen  paying  not  more  than  half 
the  premium,  and  in  no  case  more  than  three  per  cent,  of  their 
wages.  These  funds  were  to  be  administered,  in  each  region 
and  for  each  trade,  by  elected  boards  of  workingmen  and 
employers.  In  addition  to  sickness  indemnities  and  old  age 
pensions  (for  himself,  his  widow,  or  his  orphaned  children), 
the  workingman  was  to  receive  gratuitous  medical  treatment.454 

A  somewhat  similar  scheme  for  the  insurance  of  workingmen 
against  accidents  was  proposed  by  de  Mun's  bill  of  February  2, 
1886.  Workingmen  were  to  receive  compensation,  or  in  case 
of  fatal  accidents  their  survivors  were  to  receive  pensions,  ac- 
cording to  a  schedule  stated  in  the  bill ;  negligence  or  slight  im- 
prudence on  the  part  of  the  victim  was  not  considered  sufficient 
to  invalidate  his  claim.  To  guarantee  the  payment  of  accident 
indemnities,  employers  were  required  to  form  regional  insur- 
ance unions,  which  would  be  managed  by  elected  boards  of 
workingmen  and  employers.  The  cost  of  the  insurance  was 
to  be  borne  for  the  most  part  by  the  employer  (75  per  cent. 
at  a  minimum),  but  in  part  by  the  workingmen  (at  most  25 
per  cent. )  ,455 

Two  bills  on  industrial  arbitration  and  conciliation  boards, 
presented  by  Le  Cour,  were  signed  also  by  de  Mun.  Arbitra- 
tion of  questions  regarding  wages,  length  of  working  hours, 
conditions  of  health  and  safety,  might  be  invoked  by  either 
workingmen  or  employers ;  arbitral  boards  were  to  be  com- 
posed of  an  equal  number  of  members  chosen  by  the  working- 
men  and  members  chosen  by  the  employers.  Employers  and 
workingmen  in  any  trade  were  legally  authorized,  but  not  com- 
pelled, to  institute  a  permanent  board  of  arbitration  and  con- 
ciliation.456 


HO  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

The  proposals  outlined  in  the  bill  of  February  20,  1886,  re- 
garding child-labor,  the  employment  of  women,  and  the  eleven- 
hour  day,  were  carried  further  in  a  bill  presented  by  de  Mun  in 
December,  1889.  The  bill,  he  explained,  did  not  pretend  to 
exhaust  the  question,  but  included  simply  certain  "  indispens- 
able "  reforms.  The  maximum  working-week  for  adult  work- 
ers of  either  sex,  in  factories,  shops,  and  mines,  was  to  be 
reduced  to  58  hours,  with  no  work  on  Sundays  or  legal  holi- 
days, and  only  eight  hours  on  Saturdays  or  days  preceding 
legal  holidays.  Children  were  not  to  be  employed,  in  any  case, 
under  the  age  of  thirteen  years  (the  1886  bill  had  proposed 
twelve  years),  and  not  under  the  age  of  sixteen  without  a 
medical  certificate  of  health.  Women  were  not  to  work  at 
night,  or  underground,  or  in  shops  employing  toxic  materials, 
or  under  conditions  prejudicial  to  their  health,  or  during  a 
period  of  four  weeks  following  childbirth.  To  make  the  code 
of  labor  laws  truly  effective,  a  special  corps  of  labor  inspectors 
was  to  be  created,  and  a  supervisory  committee  was  to  be 
instituted.457 

A  specially  interesting  feature  of  this  bill  was  the  provision 
that  shop-regulations  and  wage-schedules  should  be  posted  in 
all  shops  and  regularly  notified  to  the  labor  inspectors.     In  this , 
way,  the  inspectorate  would  obtain  ample  data  to  enable  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  to  study  the  question  of  a  minimum  wage. 

Two  additional  bills  presented  in  1889  embodied  other  de- 
tails of  de  Mun's  program.  The  first,  presented  on  December 
5,  by  Thellier  de  Poncheville,  Le  Gavrian,  de  Mun,  and  others, 
protected  small  wages  against  seizure.458  The  other,  presented 
on  December  7,  aimed  to  prevent  the  excessive  division  of  land, 
by  permitting  the  division  of  inheritances  in  value,  without 
involving  the  break-up  of  the  family  farm  as  a  workable 
unit.459 

De  Mun's  activity  was  not  limited  to  the  presentation  of  bills 
outlining  his  solution  of  the  labor  problem.  In  the  debates 
on  social  legislation  he  constantly  employed  his  eloquence  in 
urging  reforms.  In  the  debate  of  January  29,  1889,  for  in- 
stance, he  delivered  a  remarkable  reply  to  the  spokesman  of 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM  III 

orthodox  political  economy,  Frederic  Passy,  who  had  declared 
that  labor  reform  must  be  accomplished  by  private  initiative 
rather  than  by  legislative  action ;  de  Mun  maintained  the  neces- 
sity of  legislative  intervention  and  of  international  agreement  on 
labor  legislation,  and  urged  his  friends,  whatever  their  opinions 
on  other  matters,  to  support  him  in  taking  a  strong  attitude  on 
this  question.460  Again,  in  the  discussions  early  in  1891,  re- 
garding the  restriction  of  child-labor,  the  employment  of 
women,  and  the  reduction  of  the  working-day,  de  Mun  took  a 
very  active  part,  striving  to  secure  effective  legislation.461 

Count  Albert  de  Mun's  social  program  as  presented  before 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in  the  years  from  1883  to  1891,  far 
from  representing  the  final  expression  of  Social  Catholic  ideas 
in  France,  was  destined  to  undergo  considerable  modification 
and  amendment  in  subsequent  years ;  nevertheless,  it  marked 
a  great  advance.  The  counter-revolutionary  impulse  which  led 
to  the  formation  of  the  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  had  been 
translated  into  a  definite,  detailed  social  program,  a  program 
decidedly  modern  in  tone,  despite  de  Mun's  admiration  of  the 
middle  ages  and  inclination  toward  monarchism;  and  de  Mun 
had  become  a  leading  advocate  of  social  legislation  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies. 

The  program  may  be  summed  up  under  three  heads.  (A) 
Labor  Organisation :  The  right  of  labor  to  organize  was  to  be 
recognized  in  law,  and  every  encouragement,  legislative  and 
otherwise,  was  to  be  given  to  the  formation  of  mixed  arbitra- 
tion and  conciliation  boards,  mixed  unions,  and  other  institu- 
tions tending  toward  the  inter-organization  of  capital  and 
labor.  The  ideal  to  be  approached  was  not  one-sided  labor- 
unionism,  which  could  merely  exact  concessions  from  capital- 
ists, but  rather,  a  modernized  form  of  guild  organization, 
embracing  both  capital  and  labor  and  reconciling  their  interests. 
Such  an  organization  would  secure  respect  of  the  rights  of  the 
workingman,  would  admit  him  to  a  share  in  the  management 
of  industry,  and  would  help  to  restore  his  interest  and  crafts- 
manlike  pride  in  his  trade.  Ultimately,  the  trade  organizations 
would  become,  in  large  part,  the  agencies  for  the  regulation  of 


112  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

wages,  hours,  and  industrial  conditions,  and  for  social  insur- 
ance. 

(B)  Labor  legislation:    The  principle  that  the  Government 
should  intervene  to  protect  not  only  women  and  children,  but 
also  adult  male  workers,  against  excessive  hours  of  employ- 
ment and  unhealthful  conditions  was  fully  recognized.     As  re- 
gards adult  male  workers,  a  weekly  maximum  of  fifty-eight 
hours  of  labor  was  fixed.     Sundays  and  holidays  were  to  be 
respected.     Women  were  not  to  be  employed  at  night,  or  un- 
derground, or  in  unhealthful  occupations,  or  in  heavy  labor,  or 
during  four  weeks  after  childbirth.     Children  were  excluded 
absolutely  from  factories  up  to  the  age  of  thirteen ;  girls,  to 
the  age  of  fourteen;  and  a  certificate  of  health  was  required 
before  children  between  thirteen  or  fourteen  and  sixteen  years 
of  age  could  be  employed.     The  details  here  given  were  not 
intended  to  represent  the  maximum  of  the  desirable,  but  merely 
what  was  considered  practicable  and  "  indispensable  "  at  the 
period.     The  establishment  of  a  minimum  wage,  for  example, 
was  not  definitely  included,   but  it   was   proposed  to   collect 
wage  statistics  with  a  view  to  action  on  the  wage  problem. 
Furthermore,  it  was  believed  that  social  legislation  in  France 
should   be    supplemented   by    international    agreements ;    such 
agreements  would  enable  national  legislation  to  proceed  further 
without  danger  of  ruinous  foreign  competition. 

(C)  Social  Insurance:     The  workingman  was  to  receive  an 
old  age  pension,  and  was  to  be  insured  against  the  consequences 
of  accident  and  sickness.    To  place  these  social  insurances  in  the 
hand  of  the  state,  de  Mun  believed,  would  only  aggravate  the 
evils  of  bureaucracy  and  accelerate  the  drift  toward  state  social- 
ism; instead,  he  would  entrust  the  management  of  insurance 
funds  to  boards  representing  the  employers  and  the  working- 
men  themselves.     By  this  device,  he  hoped  not  only  to  secure 
a  better  system  of  insurance,  but  to  foster  the  inter-organization 
of  labor  and  capital  on  a  trade  basis. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM  113 

A  MANUFACTURER'S  EXPERIMENT 

A  political  or  social  movement  is  rarely  the  result  of  a  single 
impulse;  more  frequently  it  is  produced  by  a  combination  of 
dynamic  factors.  So  it  was  with  the  Social  Catholic  movement 
under  the  Third  French  Republic.  Count  Albert  de  Mun's 
political  and  social  campaign  was  only  one  element,  albeit  the 
most  important  element,  in  creating  the  new  current  of  social 
philosophy.  Having  followed  the  development  of  de  Mun's 
ideas  down  to  the  year  1891,  we  may  now  turn  back  to  trace 
the  influence  of  a  second  factor  in  the  situation,  and  to  show 
how  this  second  factor,  though  of  independent  origin,  entered 
into  close  combination  with  the  first. 

In  this  case,  the  impulse  toward  social  reform  comes  not 
from  the  ranks  of  the  feudal  nobility,  but  from  the  industrial 
bourgeoisie,  from  the  owners  of  the  Harmel  Cotton  Mills.  This 
dynasty  of  industrial  magnates  had  been  founded  in  the  early 
days  of  the  Industrial  Revolution  by  Jacques  Harmel,  a  hand- 
spinner,  who  was  one  of  the  first  to  introduce  the  new  spinning 
machines  into  France.  One  of  his  sons,  Jacques  Joseph  Har- 
mel, founded  the  great  spinning  mill  of  Val-des-Bois  in  the 
year  i84O.462  That  the  factory  at  Val-des-Bois  became  inter- 
nationally famous  as  a  social  experiment  was  due  to  Jacques 
Joseph  Harmel's  originality,  an  originality  consisting  largely  in 
a  really  sincere  and  almost  saintly  religious  devotion.  Shocked 
by  the  irreligion  and  immorality  prevalent  among  the  working- 
classes,  he  strove  at  first  to  convert  his  employees  to  Christi- 
anity by  personal  contact  and  personal  example.  This  means 
proving  to  be  of  small  effect,  he  hit  upon  the  idea  of  founding 
and  fostering  welfare  associations  which  while  ameliorating  the 
material  conditions  among  his  workingmen  would  also  exert  a 
salutary  moral  and  religious  influence.463  Thanks  to  his  per- 
sistence and  enthusiasm,  the  experiment  proved  successful. 
The  Val-des-Bois  became  in  some  sort  a  modern  guild.  In- 
stead of  strikes  and  class-conflict,  "  Christian  Democracy  "  and 
"  social  peace  "  reigned  at  Val-des-Bois,  and  the  title,  "  the  good 
father"  (Bon  pere),  which  the  workingmen  gave  to  their 


114  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

master,  expressed  the  "  family-like  "  harmony  which  pervaded 
the  establishment.464 

The  organization  of  Val-des-Bois  was  developed  by  Jacques 
Harmel's  son  Leon,  who  fully  realized  the  significance  of  his 
father's  and  his  own  innovations  as  a  social  experiment,  an 
attempt  to  establish  a  "  Christian  guild  "  as  a  pattern  of  indus- 
trial organization.  Leon  Harmel's  books, —  Manual  of  a  Chris- 
tian Guild  (i876),465  and  Employer's  Catechism  (i889),466 
provide  us  with  an  excellent  description  of  what  the  Harmels 
actually  accomplished  and  with  a  statement  of  the  theory  upon 
which  they  worked.467 

The  Val-des-Bois  guild  was  an  organism,  a  union  of  associa- 
tions, rather  than  a  simple  union.  This  complexity  was  in- 
herent in  the  theory  itself,  for  the  Harmels  were  striving  to 
combine  several  principles  in  a  harmonious  practical  system. 
The  simple  principle  of  union  by  itself  was  considered  inade- 
quate; it  tended  to  create  labor-unions  hostile  to  capital  and 
bent  on  class  warfare.  The  principle  of  democratic  control 
of  industry  would  logically  lead  to  the  elimination  of  the  em- 
ployer. The  principle  of  capitalistic  paternalism,  if  taken 
alone,  was  inadequate  because  it  failed  to  awaken  any  vital 
response  among  the  workingmen.  The  Harmels  attempted  to 
make  a  Christian  synthesis  of  these  principles.  In  the  first 
place,  the  workers  were  permitted,  nay  encouraged,  to  form 
various  associations  —  a  men's  club,  a  women's  association,  a 
girls'  society,  a  mutual  benefit  society.  Democratic  control 
was  practised  in  the  management  of  these  associations,  and 
was  represented  by  elected  shop-committees,  but  was  not  car- 
ried to  the  extreme.  The  Guild  Board,  an  elective  council  of 
workingmen,  was  consulted  on  such  questions  as  shop-manage- 
ment and  wage-schedules,  but  had  no  sovereign  authority  in 
these  matters;  the  policy  of  the  employers  was  to  act  with 
democratic  advice  and  consent,  but  not  to  abdicate  their  author- 
ity. The  third  principle,  paternalism,  received  expression  in 
manifold  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  employers  to  promote  the 
material  and  moral  welfare  of  the  workingmen,  to  foster  and 
guide  even  the  institutions  controlled  by  the  workers.  The 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM       1 15 

paternal  influence  may  be  seen  in  the  fact  that  one  of  the 
employers  acted  as  chairman  of  the  Guild  Board,  and  the  super- 
vision of  general  guild  interests  was  entrusted  to  a  committee 
composed  of  the  members  of  the  firm,  the  chaplain,  the  school- 
director,  and  representatives  of  the  various  workingmen's 
associations.  In  this  fashion  the  three  principles  of  associa- 
tion, democratic  control,  and  capitalist  paternalism  were  com- 
bined and  balanced  in  a  complex  organism  consisting  of  first, 
employers,  second,  the  general  committee  of  employers  and 
representatives  of  the  workingmen's  institutions,  third,  the 
workingmen's  Guild  Board,  fourth,  shop  committees,  fifth,  vari- 
ous economic,  social  and  religious  associations  among  the 
work-people. 

The  Guild  Board  was  in  many  respects  the  most  interesting 
feature  of  the  organization.  Its  meetings  were  held  every  six 
weeks,  as  a  rule,  and  were  concerned  with  general  questions, 
such  as  workingmen's  insurance,  wages,  shop-regulations,  super- 
vision of  the  guild  institutions.  For  matters  of  detail,  the 
Board  was  divided  into  four  sections,  each  of  which  held 
weekly  meetings.  One  section  had  charge  of  accident-compen- 
sation, sickness-benefits,  life-insurance,  and  the  savings-bank. 
Another  secured  discounts  from  licensed  tradesmen.  A  third 
purchased  coal  and  potatoes  at  wholesale  prices.  Vocational 
training  was  supervised  by  one  of  the  sections. 

In  these  and  similar  matters  the  workingmen  gained  valuable 
experience  in  collective  action  and  obtained  very  considerable 
material  advantages  for  themselves.  For  example,  by  licensing 
a  butcher,  a  baker,  a  grocer,  a  vegetable-dealer,  and  a  cheese- 
dealer  to  supply  the  guild-members,  and  by  guaranteeing  these 
licensed  tradesmen  against  bad  accounts,  the  guild  secured  a 
discount  of  five  per  cent,  on  all  purchases  by  members.  Again, 
by  purchasing  coal  in  large  quantities,  a  twenty  per  cent,  sav- 
ing was  effected ;  on  potatoes,  vegetables  and  bread  the  saving 
was  ten  per  cent.  Seasonal  exhibits  of  clothing  were  arranged, 
enabling  the  members  to  select  their  wearing  apparel  from  a 
large  stock  and  to  purchase  at  wholesale  prices. 

The  members  of  the  guild  also  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  what 


Il6  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

we  now  call  social  insurance.  All  members  were  insured 
against  accident  and  death.  In  case  of  sickness,  a  very  small 
daily  indemnity  of  from  ten  to  thirty  sous  was  paid.  More- 
over, when  a  woman  was  sick  and  unable  to  discharge  her 
home  duties,  a  girl  was  sent  to  do  the  household  work.  A 
physician  was  paid  by  the  employer  to  give  free  medical  assist- 
ance. Medicines  were  provided  without  charge.  In  serious 
cases,  a  patient  might  be  sent  to  the  hospital  at  Rheims,  without 
expense  to  himself.  In  case  of  accident,  the  worker  received 
half-pay  while  he  was  disabled;  if  permanently  crippled,  he  re- 
ceived a  life  annuity;  if  he  was  killed,  his  family  received  a 
compensation  proportional  to  his  wages. 

Harmel  was  especially  interested  in  promoting  the  family  life 
of  his  employees.  Instead  of  erecting  barren  and  unsightly 
tenements,  in  which  no  family  could  enjoy  privacy,  and  all 
were  condemned  to  live  in  depressing  squalor,  he  built  separate 
cottages  each  with  as  large  a  garden  as  the  family  desired. 
These  he  rented  at  140  francs  a  year.  A  dowry  of  one  hun- 
dred francs  was  given  to  girls  at  the  time  of  their  marriage. 
Weddings  were  made  the  occasion  of  social  festivities. 
Mothers  received  material  and  medical  assistance  at  time  of 
childbirth.  Morality  was  preached  and  vice  discouraged. 
Every  possible  means  was  employed  to  make  the  workingman's 
home  a  stable  center  of  contentment  and  happiness. 

Many  years  in  advance  of  national  legislation,  a  rule  was 
established  at  Val-des-Bois  that  no  children  should  be  employed 
under  the  age  of  twelve  years.  Free  primary  education  was 
instituted  and  school-attendance  was  made  compulsory.  Fur- 
thermore, as  has  been  remarked,  the  guild  had  a  system  of 
vocational  training.  The  higher  positions  in  the  factory  were 
filled  from  the  ranks  of  laborers,  and  the  idea  that  promotion 
was  the  normal  result  of  expertness  was  sedulously  cultivated. 

Probably  the  moral  effects  of  the  guild  organization  were 
quite  as  important  as  its  material  advantages.  The  working- 
man  who  was  secure  in  his  employment,  protected  against  acci- 
dent or  sickness,  participating  in  the  management  of  guild 
affairs,  was  no  longer  a  "  wage-slave,"  a  cog  in  the  machine, 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM  1 17 

but  a  self-respecting  human  being.  He  felt  a  pride  in  his  trade 
and  in  his  home.  The  increase  of  savings  indicated  the  growth 
of  self-respect  among  Harmel's  workingmen ;  in  the  year  1877 
almost  19,000  francs  were  deposited  in  the  guild  savings-bank. 
Moreover,  a  healthy  social  life,  fostered  by  the  various  associa- 
tions, satisfied  the  human  craving  which  under  different  cir- 
cumstances would  have  been  indulged  in  vicious  amusements. 
Musical  clubs,  recreation-rooms,  billiards,  bowling,  skittles  and 
theatrical  entertainments  afforded  harmless  forms  of  amuse- 
ment, while  the  deliberations  of  the  various  boards  and  com- 
mittees and  the  meetings  of  the  associations  offered  an  inter- 
esting and  useful  means  of  occupying  leisure  hours.  The  net 
result  was  contentment,  a  commodity  as  satisfactory  to  the 
workingmen  as  it  is  profitable  to  the  employer.  Strikes  and 
lockouts  were  inconceivable. 

Just  how  large  a  part  religious  elements  played  in  the  guild  at 
Val-des-Bois  would  be  difficult  to  estimate.  Certainly  it  was  a 
very  important  part.  In  founding  the  guild  institutions,  the 
Harmels,  by  their  own  testimony,  had  at  heart  the  religious 
welfare  of  their  workingmen  quite  as  much  as  the  harmonious 
and  efficient  conduct  of  the  factory.  The  members  of  the  guild 
were  encouraged  to  join  purely  religious  Catholic  societies. 
The  chaplain  and  the  friar  who  directed  the  schools  were  mem- 
bers of  the  governing  committee.  The  whole  life  of  the  com- 
munity was  pervaded  by  the  Christian  spirit.  Harmel,  when  he 
came  to  discuss  the  theory  of  the  guild,  insisted  that  unity  and 
harmony  could  not  be  obtained  without  frankly  accepting  Chris- 
tianity as  the  moral  basis. 

Because  his  experiment  in  industrial  management  was  so 
distinctly  Catholic  in  character,  Leon  Harmel  took  the  keenest 
possible  interest  in  Count  Albert  de  Mun's  campaign  for  the 
establishment  of  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs.  What  Har- 
mel had  achieved  in  fact, —  the  reorganization  of  industry  on 
a  Christian  basis, —  de  Mun  was  demanding  in  theory.  Har- 
mel's experiment  and  de  Mun's  propaganda  inevitably  con- 
verged. 

Contact  between  the  two  was  established  in  the  year  1873, 


Il8  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

when  de  Mun's  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  were  making  a 
pilgrimage  at  Liesse.  The  club  members  were  marching  in  a 
procession,  when  they  were  surprised  to  see  Harmel  and  a 
detachment  of  workingmen  from  Val-des-Bois  appear  from 
behind  an  ambush.  This  was  Harmel's  manner  of  announcing 
that  Val-des-Bois  had  joined  de  Mun's  Association  of  Catholic 
Workingmen's  Clubs.468 

That  Harmel  was  warmly  welcomed  goes  almost  without 
saying.  He  supplied  precisely  what  the  Association  needed,  the 
confirmation  of  practical  experience  for  its  doctrines.  Hitherto, 
the  directors  of  the  Association  had  eloquently  but  somewhat 
vaguely  recommended  the  restoration  of  the  guild  regime  in 
industry ;  now,  however,  they  had  before  their  eyes  a  concrete 
example,  a  practical  working  model.  Restoration  of  the  guild 
in  a  modernized  form  was  no  longer  an  ideal  glowing  dimly 
through  the  mists  of  the  distant  future;  it  was  a  program 
for  immediate  action.  What  Harmel  had  done,  other  Christian 
employers  could  and  should  imitate.  Hence  we  find  the  leaders 
of  the  Association  becoming  more  positive  and  much  more 
definite  in  their  propaganda  for  the  guild  idea. 

At  the  request  of  de  Mun's  friend,  La  Tour  du  Pin,  Leon 
Harmel  prepared  a  Manual  setting  forth  the  principles  and  de- 
scribing the  operation  of  the  Christian  guild.469  He  laid  the 
proofs  of  this  book  before  the  national  Congress  of  the  Associa- 
tion, at  Bordeaux,  in  1876,  together  with  a  report  on  the  same 
subject.  His  definition  of  the  guild  may  be  quoted: 

The  Guild  may  be  defined  as  follows :  The  Christian  labor  guild 
is  formed  by  the  harmonized  collectivity  of  divers  societies,  which 
comprise  the  employers  as  well  as  the  workingmen  and  the  various 
members  of  the  family.  The  guild  is  established  by  a  committee ; 
it  is  based  on  Catholic  principles,  respect  of  social  hierarchies  and 
submission  to  the  Church. 

The  associations  which  compose  it  are  constituted  and  governed 
in  accord  with  two  principles  adopted  by  the  Association  of  Catholic 
Workingmen's  Clubs : 

1.  The  devotion  of  the  upper  class  to  the  laborers ; 

2.  Participation    of    the    working-class    members    in    the    internal 
control,  under  the  direction  of  an  affectionate  but  efficacious  pater- 
nal care  (paternite). 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  PROGRAM  119 

Each  association  has  its  elected  council,  which  really  conducts  the 
administration,  under  the  chairmanship  of  a  director  or  directress. 

Each  association  is  represented  in  the  guild  committee,  the  men's 
associations  by  their  directors,  the  associations  of  women  and  girls 
by  delegates. 

The  union  of  these  associations  is  manifested  by  joint  meet- 
ings. .  .  . 

This  union  is  cemented  by  Christian  charity  and  sustained  by 
economic  institutions  which  extend  the  solicitude  of  the  guild  to  all 
the  needs  of  its  members,  from  the  moral  and  the  material  point 
of  view.  These  economic  institutions  are  governed  by  a  board 
chosen  by  the  Council  of  Clubs  and  the  Committee.470 

The  following  year,  Harmel  brought  his  Manual  before  the 
congress  of  Catholic  Friendly  Societies  (CEuvres  ouvrieres 
catholiques) ,  at  Puy.  Again  he  insisted  that  the  guild  must  be 
primarily  religious.  In  fact,  its  primary  aim  seemed  to  be  the 
religious  reformation  of  the  industrial  classes.  "  Instead  of 
attempting  a  vain  and  useless  resistance,"  he  said,  "  let  us  go 
to  the  machine  and  baptize  it."  471 

Harmel's  influence  was  especially  powerful  in  attracting 
Catholic  capitalists.  To  them,  his  scheme  offered  at  once  a 
means  of  reconciling  Christianity  and  capitalism,  and  a  safe- 
guard against  the  socialist  labor  movement.  In  November, 
1879,  an  important  group  of  Catholic  industrialists  in  northern 
France  endorsed  Harmel's  principles.472  A  few  years  later, 
in  August,  1882,  all  the  employers  present  at  the  Congress  of 
Catholic  Friendly  Societies  at  Autun  subscribed  to  a  declara- 
tion approving  the  Val-des-Bois  experiment  as  an  example 
to  be  imitated,  and  affirming  the  very  great  importance  of 
"  multiplying  without  delay  examples  of  the  Christian  guild, 
in  order  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  guild  system,  the  true 
solution  of  the  labor  problem."  473 

True  to  their  word,  a  number  of  Catholic  employers  did  in 
fact  attempt  to  imitate  the  organization  of  the  Val-des-Bois 
guild.  To  all  such  efforts  .the  Association  of  Catholic  Working- 
men's  Clubs  gave  the  most  lively  sympathy  and  active  encour- 
agement. Almost  every  month  the  Bulletin  of  the  Association 
contained  some  report  on  the  progress  of  these  foundations. 


120  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Meanwhile,  in  parliament,  Count  Albert  de  Mun  was  demand- 
ing not  only  legal  recognition,  but  special  rights,  such  as  the 
right  to  receive  legacies  and  bequests,  for  mixed  unions  (syndi- 
cats  mixtes)  of  employers  and  workingmen, —  the  Christian 
guild  falling  within  the  category  of  mixed  unions.474  Other 
leading  members  of  the  Association  published  articles  on  the 
necessity,  the  theoretical  excellence,  or  the  practical  value  of  the 
guild  organization.475 

In  short,  the  Harmel  experiment,  antedating  and  at  first 
independent  of  Count  Albert  de  Mun's  propaganda,  was  a  very 
powerful  factor  in  reinforcing  that  propaganda  and  an  impor- 
tant element  in  the  Social  Catholic  movement.  Harmel's  great 
personal  prestige  and  the  renown  of  his  model  factory  were 
highly-valued  assets.  Perhaps,  in  the  long  run,  the  influence 
of  Harmel  and  of  the  Catholic  employers  who  followed  in  his 
train  was  not  altogether  helpful  to  the  Social  Catholic  move- 
ment,—  as  to  that,  the  facts  which  will  be  brought  out  in  sub- 
sequent pages  will  enable  the  reader  to  form  his  own  opinion. 
But  that  the  influence,  whether  helpful  or  not,  was  very  con- 
siderable, can  hardly  be  disputed. 


CHAPTER  IV 
ENCOURAGEMENT  FROM  ABROAD 

UP  to  this  point  in  the  narrative,  French  Social  Catholicism 
has  been  considered  as  though  it  were  an  indigenous,  self- 
sufficient  movement  in  France  alone,  quite  independent  of 
foreign  influence.  There  is,  indeed,  some  justification  for  this 
method  of  treatment;  it  has  the  advantage  of  simplicity  in 
exhibiting  the  evolution  of  the  French  movement;  moreover, 
to  the  reader  who  has  followed  the  tradition  of  Lacordaire  and 
Ozanam  down  through  the  decades  to  its  revival  under  the 
Third  Republic,  there  can  hardly  be  much  room  for  doubt 
that  the  purely  French  elements  were  vital  enough  to  have 
produced  an  entirely  independent  movement  had  that  been 
necessary.  But  on  the  other  hand,  it  were  folly  to  deny  that 
contemporaneous  developments  in  other  countries  exerted  a 
very  genuine  influence  upon  the  French  Social  Catholics.  It 
is,  therefore,  of  interest  to  turn  aside  from  France,  for  the 
moment,  in  order  to  survey  the  development  of  the  foreign 
Social  Catholic  movements  and  to  evaluate  their  influence  upon 
France. 

Probably  the  most  important  of  these  foreign  movements, 
and  the  one  that  had  the  greatest  positive  influence  on  French 
Catholic  thought,  was  that  which  arose  in  Germany.  It  owed 
its  inception 476  to  Baron  Wilhelm  Emmanuel  von  Ketteler 
(181 1-1877), 477  who  has  been  styled  "the  first  and  veritable 
initiator  of  the  Social  Catholic  Movement."478 

After  completing  his  university  studies  in  law  and  economics, 
von  Ketteler  entered  the  Prussian  civil  service.  When,  how- 
ever, the  Prussian  Government  in  1837  arrested  the  Archbishop 
of  Cologne,  he  resigned  his  position  and  entered  the  priesthood. 
This  decisive  event  in  his  life  gave  him  a  strong  anti-bureau- 
cratic bias,  a  bias  clearly  evinced  in  his  subsequent  writings  on 
the  social  question. 

121 


122  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

His  work  as  a  priest  led  him  to  take  a  keen  interest  in  the 
labor  problem,  partly  because  he  came  into  personal  contact 
with  the  masses  and  observed  their  economic  and  moral  degra- 
dation, partly  because  he  discovered  that  socialist  agitation  was 
making  progress  among  them.  In  November,  1848,  a  few 
months  after  the  publication  of  the  historic  Communist  Mani- 
festo by  Marx  and  Engels,  von  Ketteler,  preaching  in  the 
cathedral  at  Mainz,  electrified  his  auditors  by  entering  upon  a 
bold  discussion  of  the  labor  problem.  "If  we  would  under- 
stand the  times  in  which  we  live,"  he  declared,  "  we  must  seek 
to  fathom  the  social  problem."  Political  leaders  were  talking 
of  liberty  of  the  press,  the  franchise,  the  right  of  assembly, 
but  none  of  these  would  feed  the  hungry.  Social  reformers 
were  proposing  all  manner  of  remedies,  but  these  were  "  noth- 
ing but  drops  in  the  bucket."  Equal  division  of  property  was  a 
drastic,  but  not  a  sound  cure.  The  true  solution  must  be 
obtained  from  Christianity.  Not  mere  charitable  alms-giving 
in  the  name  of  Christ  would  suffice.  Christians  must  go  fur- 
ther than  that.  The  Christian  philosophy  must  give  new  direc- 
tion to  men's  strivings,  and  new  form  to  their  economic  ideas. 
There  must  be  a  return  to  the  love  of  the  common  people  as  that 
love  was  exemplified  by  the  mendicant  friars  in  the  middle  ages. 
There  must  be  a  return  to  the  conception  of  property-rights  as 
set  forth  by  the  great  medieval  theologian,  Saint  Thomas 
Aquinas :  namely,  that  men  enjoyed  not  an  absolute  and  uncon- 
ditional ownership  of  property,  but  only  the  right  to  use  prop- 
erty in  accordance  with  divine  law.479 

Years  of  economic  study  48°  and  reflection  confirmed  von 
Ketteler  in  his  opinion  that  Christianity  held  the  key  to  the 
solution  of  the  social  problem.  In  a  book  on  The  Labor  Ques- 
tion and  Christianity  (i864),481  he  discussed  the  problem  and 
its  proposed  solutions  in  detail.  His  denunciation  of  existing 
conditions  was,  to  say  the  least,  vigorous.  The  workingman, 
he  said,  had  been  victimized  by  the  Industrial  Revolution ;  "  he 
stands  in  competition  with  a  machine  which  works  day  and 
night,  without  hunger  or  need  of  sleep,  unresting,  and  with  not 
merely  human  strength,  but  the  force  of  many  horse-power." 


ENCOURAGEMENT  FROM  ABROAD        123 

The  growing  preponderance  of  capital  was  driving  the  inde- 
pendent workman  into  the  class  of  day-laborers  and  wage- 
earners.482  Wages,  being  made  to  depend  upon  "  supply  and 
demand,"  were  uncertain,  inadequate  to  supply  human  needs. 
He  quoted  a  mass  of  statistics  and  reports  of  investigations  to 
show  the  alarming  condition  of  labor.483  "  This  is  the  slave- 
market  of  our  liberal  Europe,"  he  ironically  declared,  "  fash- 
ioned according  to  the  pattern  of  our  humane,  enlightened,  anti- 
Christian  Liberalism  and  Free-Masonry."  484 

Coming  to  the  analysis  of  proposed  remedies,  von  Ketteler 
observed  that  the  Liberals  represented  by  Schultze-Delkzsch 
and  the  radicals  or  socialists  represented  by  Lassalle  both  pro- 
posed to  create  codperative  production  associations  as  the 
means  of  rescuing  the  workingmen  from  the  wage-system. 
The  Liberals,  true  to  their  principles,  defended  liberty  of  in- 
dustry and  trade,  repudiated  state-intervention,  and  trusted 
to  self-help  and  education ;  and  the  cooperative  production  as- 
sociations which  Schultze-Delitzsch  advocated  were  to  be 
formed  voluntarily^  with  capital  contributed  from  the  savings 
of  the  members.485  These  proposals,  said  von  Ketteler,  were 
wholly  inadequate ;  only  the  more  prosperous  artisans  could 
benefit  thereby;  the  wage-earners  in  the  larger  industries  had 
no  hope  of  accumulating  capital  sufficient  to  launch  coopera- 
tive enterprises.486 

The  Lassallean  socialists,  on  the  other  hand,  proposed  that 
the  state  should  provide  the  capital  for  cooperative  production 
associations.487  Von  Ketteler,  ever  distrustful  of  the  govern- 
ment, considered  such  action  dangerous ;  nay  more,  <the  govern- 
ment had  no  moral  right  to  take  the  wealth  of  some  of  the 
citizens  for  the  purpose  of  lending  it  to  others.488  He  admit- 
ted, however,  that  Lassalle's  party  had  performed  a  useful 
service  in  exposing  the  evils  in  the  existing  industrial  system 
and  in  calling  attention  to  the  grievances  of  labor. 

For  his  own  part,  the  Catholic  bishop  proposed  that  the  co- 
operative associations  should  be  financed  by  the  voluntary  con- 
tributions of  Christians.  The  Church  had  raised  great  sums 
for  the  erection  of  cathedrals, —  why  not  now  for  the  reform 


124  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

of  industry?  Here  was  an  urgent  duty  and  a  glorious  oppor- 
tunity for  Christianity  to  step  into  the  breach.489 

Von  Ketteler's  book  had  an  enormous  effect.  His  ideas 
were  widely  and  —  to  a  surprising  extent  —  favorably  dis- 
cussed by  the  Catholic  press.  Lassalle  hailed  the  volume  as 
a  very  important  confirmation  of  his  own  economic  doctrine, 
even  though  it  criticized  his  program.  To  French  bourgeois 
observers,  it  appeared  that  the  German  bishop  had  turned  so- 
cialist.490 

Bishop  von  Ketteler's  program  soon  became  more  radical  and 
more  precise.  In  1869  he  told  the  laborers  that  their  demands 
for  higher  wages,  for  shorter  hours,  for  holidays,  for  prohibi- 
tion of  child-labor  and  of  the  industrial  employment  of  women, 
were  sanctioned  by  justice  and  by  Christianity.491  That  same 
year,  he  prepared  for  the  German  bishops'  congress  at  Fulda 
a  report  in  which  he  advocated :  profit-sharing,  increase  of 
wages  according  to  years  of  service,  legislative  prohibition  of 
child-labor,  limitation  of  the  working  day,  closure  of  unhealthy 
work-shops,  state-inspection  of  factory  conditions;  moreover, 
the  Church  must  take  an  active  part  in  combating  industrial 
abuses,  and  in  instilling  justice,  charity,  and  morality  into 
men's  hearts.492 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  von  Ketteler,  while  remaining  con- 
vinced that  Christianity  rather  than  the  state  must  play  the 
leading  role  in  promoting  the  reorganization  of  industry  and 
in  proclaiming  social  justice,  gradually  came  to  a  perception 
of  the  necessity  of  labor  legislation  on  the  part  of  the  state. 
Thus  his  zeal  for  social  reform  triumphed,  in  a  measure,  over 
his  strong  anti-governmental  predilection.  It  was  this  later 
phase  of  his  thought,  rather  than  his  advocacy  of  cooperative 
production,  that  particularly  influenced  the  Frlench  Social 
Catholics.  The  mature  expression  of  his  ideas  regarding  social 
legislation  is  found  in  the  program  which  he  suggested  for  Ger- 
man Catholics,  at  the  time  of  the  establishment  of  the  German 
Empire.493  "  The  first  thing  that  the  laboring  and  artisan  class 
may  demand  from  the  state,"  he  said,  "  is  that  the  state  re- 
store what  it  has  taken  away,  namely,  a  constitution  for  the 


ENCOURAGEMENT  FROM  ABROAD       125 

laboring  class,  for  the  regulation  of  labor."  494  Hence,  in  the 
first  place,  he  asked  for  legislation  in  favor  of  the  restoration 
of  the  labor  organization  which  had  been  inherited  from  the 
middle  ages  but  destroyed  in  modern  times.495  In  the  second 
place,  "  at  least  as  long  as  he  cannot  help  himself  by  means  of 
his  own  organization,"  the  workingman  may  claim  legislative 
protection.  In  detail,  the  following  protective  measures  were 
necessary:  (i)  prohibition  of  child-labor  should  be  enforced 
in  all  employments  outside  the  home;  (2)  children  should  be 
excluded  from  industry  up  ito  at  least  their  fourteenth  year; 
(3)  employment  of  married  women  in  factories  and  in  industry 
outside  their  homes  should  be  forbidden ;  (4)  if  girls  are  per- 
mitted to  work  in  factories  at  all  it  should  be  on  condition  that 
their  work-rooms  are  entirely  separate  from  those  of  the  men ; 
(5)  on  Sundays  and  holidays  all  industrial  work  must  be  pro- 
hibited; (6)  the  law  should  limit  the  working  day,  even  for 
men,  to  ten  or,  at  most,  eleven  hours;  (7)  sanitary  and  moral 
conditions  should  be  safeguarded  by  the  law;  (8)  the  execution 
of  labor  laws  should  be  thorough,  and  should  be  supervised 
by  an  adequate  force  of  inspectors.496 

Round  about  von  Ketteler  there  grew  up  a  group  of  Social 
Catholic  leaders,  a  group  whose  influence  radiated  far  and 
wide.  Conspicuous  among  von  Ketteler's  disciples  was  Chris- 
topher Moufang,497  a  priest,  whom  von  Ketteler  appointed, 
successively,  rector  of  the  seminary  at  Mainz,  canon  of  the 
cathedral,  and  representative  in  the  upper  house  of  the  Hes- 
sian Landtag.  Canon  Moufang  went  even  further  than  his 
master  in  advocacy  of  social  legislation.  When,  in  1871,  he 
was  elected  to  the  Reichstag  as  a  member  of  the  Catholic  or 
Center  Party,  it  was  on  a  strong  labor  platform.  In  his  elec- 
toral address, —  a  classic  formulation  of  the  German  Social 
Catholic  program, —  Moufang  declared  that,  important  as  the 
contribution  of  the  Church  to  social  reform  might  be,  the 
Church  alone,  and  private  efforts  alone,  were  inadequate.  The 
state,  therefore,  was  obliged  to  intervene  in  defense  of  labor, 
in  four  ways: 

(i)  The  state  must  enact  protective  laws.     At  present  the 


126  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

law  protected  landed  property  and  capital.  Why  should  it 
not  protect  -the  workingman  against  the  so-called  "  iron  law  " 
of  wages,  and  assure  him  an  equitable  compensation  for  his 
labor  ? 498  The  state  was  not  obliged  to  create  labor  associa- 
tions, but  it  should  certainly  give  them  legal  aid  and  encour- 
agement, and  sanction  their  statutes,  so  that  they  might  develop 
strongly  and  vigorously  as  in  the  middle  ages.  Futhermore, 
the  law  should  prohibit  work  on  Sundays  and  should  limit  the 
working-day.  The  labor  of  women  and  children  should  not  be 
merely  restricted,  but  should  be  absolutely  prohibited.  There 
should  be  factory  and  housing  laws.  Such  legislation  was 
urgently  needed  to  eradicate  industrial  abuses  which  were  in 
open  contradiction  with  Christian  principles. 

(2)  The  state  should  also  give  financial  assistance,  in  the 
form  of  loans  on  easy  terms,  to  encourage  cooperative  pro- 
duction.    On  this  point,  Moufang  adopts  the  Lassallean  prin- 
ciple repudiated  in  1864  by  von  Ketteler. 

(3)  A  third  reform  helpful  to  the  workingman  would  be 
the  reduction  of  military  burdens.     Militarism,  the  plague  of 
modern  Germany,  took  the  laborers  from  field  and  factory  for 
military  training,  and  saddled  the  people  with  oppressive  taxa- 
tion. 

(4)  Finally,  it  was  the  duty  of  the  state,  by  checking  ex- 
cessive speculation  and  supervising  stock-exchange  operations, 
to  curb  the  tyranny  of  capital.     Wealth  in  itself  was  not  to  be 
condemned,  but  the  acquisition  of  millions  by  immoral  finan- 
cial speculation,  or  by  wringing  fortunes  from  the  sweat  of 
the  working-classes,  was  not  to  be  tolerated.499 

After  Canon  Moufang's  retirement  from  active  political  life 
(1886),  Canon  Hitze  50°  became  the  most  conspicuous  exponent 
of  Social  Catholic  theories  in  Germany.  In  Hitze's  numerous 
works  on  economic  questions 501  the  starting-point  was  the 
same  as  it  was  in  von  Ketteler's  The  Labor  Question.  The  in- 
troduction of  machinery  and  the  growing  power  of  capital,  he 
pointed  out,  had  placed  the  workingman  in  an  intolerable  situa- 
tion, and  had  brought  in  (their  train  social  injustices  against 
which  Christians  were  morally  obliged  to  protest.  The  work- 


ENCOURAGEMENT  FROM  ABROAD        127 

ingman  had  become  mechanised,  a  slave  to  the  machine.  The 
unresting  machine  demanded  human  labor  on  Sundays  and 
holidays,  and  during  the  night,  as  well  as  in  normal  working 
hours ;  it  had  robbed  the  workingman  of  independence,  of  need- 
ful leisure,  of  wife  and  children,  and  of  his  just  wages.  Po- 
litical economy  had  introduced  a  false,  materialistic,  and  un- 
Christian  philosophy  of  industry.  The  modern  economic  sys- 
tem, consequently,  had  become  "  the  organization  af  '  the 
struggle  for  existence,'  in  which  capital  and  labor  alike  suc- 
cumb." 502  His  analysis  of  the  defects  of  the  existing  order  is 
worth  quoting: 

The  present  social  order,  governed  only  by  the  law  of  competition, 
is  not  adequate  as  an  "  order  " ;  it  does  not  satisfy  either  the  material 
conditions  of  production  or  the  interests  of  social  distribution,  or, 
finally,  from  a  moral  and  intellectual  viewpoint,  the  ideas  of  liberty 
and  equality, —  the  aspirations,  in  short,  which  characterize  our 
epoch.  It  was  born  and  developed  under  the  exclusive  auspices  of 
individualism ;  its  constitution  is  vicious ;  it  now  needs  an  organ- 
ization with  a  more  social  basis  for  its  further  perfection.503 

The  "  social  question,"  then,  was  the  problem  of  finding  a 
system  of  economic  organization  adapted  to  modern  methods 
of  production  and  at  the  same  time  harmonious  with  modern 
ideals.  The  solution  was  not  to  be  found  in  state  socialism. 
Hitze  rejected  Marxian  socialism  just  as  von  Ketteler  in  his 
day  had  opposed  Lassallean  socialism.  He  distrusted  the  ten- 
dency toward  centralization  and  bureaucracy;  he  feared  lest 
the  heavy  hand  of  the  state  should  be  laid  upon  all  social  life, 
preventing  the  healthy  development  of  individuals  and  of  so- 
cial organisms.504 

"  It  is  not  state  socialism  that  we  want,"  cried  Hitze,  "  but 
guild  socialism."  505  In  other  words,  he  felt  and  said  that  the 
solution  of  the  social  question  lay  in  the  return  to  the  medieval 
idea  of  organizing  society  on  the  basis  of  guilds.  Not  a  pure 
and  simple  return  to  the  medieval  guild,  but  the  establishment 
of  a  modernized  .guild-system  was  what  he  advocated.  The 
guilds  of  today  must  rest  upon  a  larger  economic  basis  and 
must  be  more  democratic  than  those  of  the  middle  ages." 


128  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Whereas  the  French  Social  Catholics  in  the  'eighties  were 
reluctant  to  accept  the  principle  of  compulsory  guild  organiza- 
tion, Hitze  felt  that  the  voluntary  and  consequently  partial 
organization  of  industry  on  the  guild  basis  would  be  abso- 
lutely inadequate.  Free  guilds  would  be  frail  weapons  to 
cleave  through  the  "  iron  law  "  of  wages.  To  be  effective, 
guild  organization  must  be  made  compulsory  for  all  industries, 
trades,  and  professions,  and  for  agriculture  as  well.506 

Once  established,  the  guilds  might  serve  as  the  starting- 
point  for  far-reaching  political  and  even  international  recon- 
struction. For  example,  Hitze  anticipated  the  later  agitation 
for  "  functional  representation,"  by  suggesting  a  reform  of  the 
representative  system  on  the  basis  of  the  guilds.507  Again,  in 
international  relations,  the  guilds  would  promote  true  peace  and 
fraternity : 

Once  we  have  national  guild  associations,  their  international  federa- 
tion will  be  established  easily,  since  they  will  be  forced  into  it  by 
self-interest.  Then  the  way  will  be  opened  to  a  veritable  "  frater- 
nization "  of  the  nations.508 

Bishop  von  Ketteler,  Canon  Moufang,  and  Canon  Hitze  were 
but  three  outstanding  figures  in  the  German  Social  Catholic 
movement.  Count  Losewitz,  a  Protestant  economist  who  was 
converted  to  Catholicism,  Professor  Rudolph  Meyer,  a  very 
important  non-Catholic  economist  who  became  a  leading  ex- 
ponent of  Social  Catholic  doctrines,  Jorg  and  Jager,  two  his- 
torians of  socialism  and  social  politics,  Abbe  Winterer,  Hohen- 
berg,  Ratzinger,  the  historian,  Lennig,  Lehmkuhl,  and,  among 
its  more  moderate  political  advocates,  Windthorst,  Hertling, 
Grober, —  these  are  a  few  of  the  names  that  suggest  themselves 
were  an  adequate  sketch  of  German  Social  Catholicism  to  be 
written. 

Social  Catholic  ideas  found  expression  in  periodicals  such 
as  the  Christlich-Sociale  Blatter  and  the  Historische-Politische 
Blatter  and  in  the  Catholic  press  quite  generally;  they  were 
discussed  at  the  great  congresses  of  German  Catholics;  they 
inspired  powerful  organizations  like  the  Arbeiterwohl  (So- 


ENCOURAGEMENT  FROM  ABROAD       129 

ciety  for  the  Welfare  of  the  Laborer,  an  association  of  Cath- 
olic employers) ;  they  led  Catholics  to  take  an  active  part  in  the 
labor  movement ;  they  found  learned  economists  as  defenders ; 
they  obtained  representation  in  the  state  assemblies  and  in  the 
national  parliament.  Both  Moufang  and  Hitze  were  members 
of  the  Reichstag,  and  Hitze,  particularly,  was  very  active  in 
proposing  and  defending  measures  of  social  legislation,  such 
as  the  progressive  diminution  of  the  working-day,  the  prohibi- 
tion of  child-labor,  the  restriction  of  woman-labor,  and  similar 
measures.509  Hertling,  more  moderate  in  his  views,  was  an 
emphatic  advocate  of  such  measures  as  reduction  of  the  work- 
ing-day, factory-regulation  and  inspection,  restriction  of  the 
employment  of  women,  and  prohibition  of  Sunday-labor.510 
In  fact,  the  great  Center  party,  though  interested  primarily  in 
political  and  religious  questions,  was  strongly  influenced,  as 
may  be  seen  by  reading  its  electoral  platforms,511  by  the  social 
ideas  of  von  Ketteler's  school ;  it  became  a  party  of  social  re- 
form, as  well  as  of  religious  liberty  and  political  particular- 
ism.512 

From  a  movement  so  powerful  in  Germany,  Austrian  Cath- 
olics could  not  long  remain  immune.  Bishop  von  Ketteler's 
writings  were  widely  read,  almost  from  the  beginning,  and  his 
ideas  soon  found  propagandists.  Professor  Maxen,  coming  to 
Vienna  from  a  German  university,  acted  as  the  interpreter  of 
German  Social  Catholicism  to  a  group  of  young  Viennese 
noblemen,  who  were  in  the  habit  of  coming  to  his  home  to  dis- 
cuss economic  and  social  problems.  His  disciples  made  the 
Catholic  journal  Das  Vaterland?  an  organ  of  Social  Catholic 
ideas,  and  constituted  a  small  but  extremely  influential 
group.513 

In  the  group  that  gathered  around  Das  Vaterland,  Prince 
Aloysius  von  Lichtenstein,  Baron  Karl  von  Vogelsang,  and 
Professor  Rudolph  Meyer  were  perhaps  the  most  conspicuous 
leaders.  Lichtenstein,  thanks  more  to  his  high  social  position 
than  to  his  talents,  was  able  to  render  valuable  service  to  the 
cause,  in  parliament,  in  Catholic  congresses,  in  public  gather- 
ings.514 


130  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Vogelsang,  Prussian  and  Protestant  by  birth  but  Austrian 
by  residence  and  Catholic  by  conversion,  became  the  real  leader 
of  the  Austrian  Social  Catholic  movement  in  the  'eighties.  In 
the  Monatsschrift  fur  christliche  Social-Reform,  of  which  he 
was  editor,  Vogelsang  fulminated  against  existing  injustice, 
described  the  misery  and  oppression  of  the  proletarian  work- 
ers, denounced  the  tyrannical  abuse  of  the  power  of  capital,  and 
urged  courageous  reform.  Private  charity  was  not  adequate 
to  relieve  existing  distress,  nor  should  it  be  substituted  for 
justice.  The  Church,  by  itself,  could  not  cope  with  the  situa- 
tion. Christian  principles  must  serve  as  the  basis  for  ener- 
getic state-intervention  and  legislation,  if  a  social  organization 
based  on  justice  to  the  weak  was  to  be  established.  The  state, 
therefore,  should  enact  drastic  social  legislation  and  should, 
above  all,  endeavor  to  reestablish  the  guild-system,  the  true 
means  of  restoring  justice  in  industry.515 

Dr.  Meyer,  the  most  authoritative  economist  of  the  Austrian 
group,  was,  like  Vogelsang,  by  origin  a  Prussian  and  a  Pro- 
testant. In  his  younger  days,  Meyer  had  been  a  disciple  of 
Rodbertus,  the  German  state-socialist.  Compelled  to  leave 
Germany,  in  consequence  of  a  too  candid  attack  on  the  Bis- 
marckian  regime,516  Meyer  had  fled  to  Austria.517  There  he 
joined  the  Vaterland  group,  contributed  to  the  development 
and  popularization  of  the  Social  Catholic  program,  and  ably 
defended  it  against  the  attacks  of  liberal  economists.  Meyer 
gave  further  impetus  to  the  tendency,  already  observed  among 
von  Ketteler's  German  and  Austrian  followers,  to  invoke  state- 
intervention  on  a  large  scale.  While  he  looked  to  the  forma- 
tion of  guilds  as  a  fundamental  reform,  he  laid  emphasis  on 
the  legislative  reduction  of  the  working-day  to  ten  hours  or 
less,  restriction  of  the  employment  of  women  and  children, 
factory-inspection,  establishment  of  a  minimum  wage,  encour- 
agement of  small  holdings,  social  insurance  and  old  age  pen- 
sions (managed  by  each  trade  separately,  as  de  Mun  proposed), 
state  cooperative  stores,  regulation  of  industrial  production, 
and  international  agreements  against  countries  which  refused 
to  adopt  social  legislation.518 


ENCOURAGEMENT  FROM  ABROAD       131 

In  Austria,  perhaps  more  than  in  any  other  country,  the 
Social  Catholic  movement  drew  its  leaders  from  the  feudal 
nobility.  As  has  been  seen,  the  movement  had  its  origin  in 
court  circles,  in  the  aristocratic  discussion-group  formed  by 
Professor  Maxen,  tutor  of  the  son  of  the  king  of  Hanover. 
Around  Baron  von  Vogelsang  and  Prince  von  Lichtenstein, 
who  have  already  been  mentioned  as  prominent  leaders,  there 
clustered  a  galaxy  of  titled  aristocrats  —  Count  Egbert  Bel- 
credi,  Count  Blome,  Count  Franz  von  Kuefstein,  Count  Lowen- 
stein,  to  mention  only  the  more  important.  And  yet  the  Aus- 
trian school  of  Social  Catholics  was  perhaps  more  inclined  to- 
ward state-socialism  than  any  other;  Dr.  Meyer,  whose  ideas 
almost  dominated  the  scientific  economic  theory  of  the  school, 
imparted  to  it  no  small  measure  of  the  socialism  of  Rodbertus. 
That  a  group  of  feudal  aristocrats  should  become  radicals,  al- 
most socialists,  in  economic  doctrine  is  no  paradox;  to  anyone 
familiar  with  the  early  history  of  social  legislation  it  appears 
almost  as  a  commonplace.  In  England  one  finds  a  Lord  Ash- 
ley doing  pioneer  work  for  social  legislation;  in  France,  a 
Vicomte  de  Villeneuve-Bargemont,  a  Count  de  Coux,  a  Count 
de  Mun,  a  Marquis  de  La  Tour  du  Pin ;  in  Germany,  a  Baron 
von  Ketteler.  But  especially  in  Austria,  because  capital  and 
industry  were  there  so  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  Jews,  and 
because  Jewish  millionaires  were  rapidly  becoming  landed 
magnates,  the  older,  Christian  aristocracy  of  birth  was  moved 
to  reassert  its  authority  by  intervening  in  the  labor  question, 
as  the  more  or  less  disinterested  defender  of  the  industrial  pro- 
letariat against  the  industrial  capitalist  and  financier.  Feudal- 
ism thus  found  its  revanche  for  the  attacks  of  the  capitalists 
and  financiers  upon  the  feudal  regime.519 

It  would  be  unfair,  however,  to  represent  the  Austrian  move- 
ment as  exclusively  feudal.  Among  numerous  exceptions  to 
the  rule,520  Dr.  Karl  Lueger  certainly  deserves  mention. 
Lueger  was  a  man  of  the  people;  his  father's  family  were 
peasants,  his  mother's,  artisans.  Lueger  himself,  though  he 
became  a  lawyer,  remained  a  son  of  ithe  people,  giving  his 
services  gratis  to  poor  clients  too  often  to  become  wealthy. 


132  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

In  the  i88o's  he  became  prominent  in  Viennese  municipal  poli- 
tics as  leader  of  a  campaign  against  corruption  and  Jewish 
capitalism.  To  him,  political  corruption,  oppressive  capitalism, 
and  anticlericalism  could  almost  be  summed  up  in  one  word, 
Semitism.  Lueger  was  an  antisemite,  but  he  was  more  than 
that.  He  was  a  leading  spirit  in  the  Christian  Socialist  party, 
a  friend  of  Vogelsang,  and  a  practical  reformer.  His  work 
as  mayor  of  Vienna  (after  1896),  in  the  field  of  municipal  re- 
form and  municipal  ownership,  attested  the  fact  that  his  con- 
victions were  not  merely  negative.521 

Among  the  foreign  Social  Catholic  movements  which  in- 
fluenced the  French  school  of  de  Mun,  the  agitation  led  by 
Cardinal  Mermillod  and  Gaspard  Decurtins  in  Switzerland  is 
entitled  to  rank  along  with  the  German  and  Austrian  move- 
ments. Mgr.  Mermillod,522  —  he  was  at  that  time  titular 
bishop  of  Hebron, —  filled  in  Switzerland  much  the  same  role 
as  Bishop  von  Ketteler  in  Germany.  His  celebrated  sermon 
of  February  23,  1868,  might  be  compared  to  von  Ketteler's 
sermons  of  1848.  Like  von  Ketteler,  Mermillod  felt  that  the 
social  question  was  the  great  problem  of  the  age,  a  problem 
demanding  the  earnest  attention  of  all  Christians.  The  de- 
velopment of  industry  had  condemned  the  workingman  to 
excessive,  monotonous,  and  underpaid  toil,  making  it  almost 
impossible  for  him  either  to  enjoy  his  rights  or  fulfil  his  duties 
as  a  Christian  and  the  father  of  a  family.  Revolting  against 
injustice  and  subjection,  the  workingman  was  drawn  toward 
socialism,  and  a  great  conflict  between  the  rich  and  poor  seemed 
imminent.  "  Do  not  accuse  me  of  exaggeration,"  he  warned  his 
hearers,  "  for 

it  is  of  no  use  averting  our  eyes  from  the  abyss ;  that  can  neither 
fill  it  up  nor  help  us  to  avoid  it.  Dangers  cannot  be  warded  off 
by  willingly  blinding  ourselves ;  let  us,  then,  examine,  without  terror 
or  alarm,  this  state  of  things,  which  is  the  result  of  the  ideas,  the 
habits,  and  the  progress  of  our  times.  This  movement  of  the 
working-classes  appears  to  us  as  a  torrent  rushing  down  from  the 
mountains ;  it  may  destroy  everything  in  its  passage,  and  scatter 
ruin  throughout  our  valleys ;  but  it  must  be  the  honor  of  the 
Catholic  Church  to  go  forth  to  meet  these  forces,  and  by  forming 


ENCOURAGEMENT  FROM  ABROAD        133 

barriers  and  canals,  reduce  these  imperious  billows,  and  form  them, 
in  the  nineteenth  century,  into  a  mighty  and  fertilizing  river.523 

Bishop  Mermillod  believed  that  the  situation  was  so  urgent 
that  curative  action  could  not  be  left  entirely  to  private  initia- 
tive and  the  influence  of  Christian  teachings  upon  men's  morals. 
Vigorous  state-intervention  was  needed.  Social  legislation 
should  be  enacted  for  the  protection  of  the  workingmen. 
Speaking  before  an  international  gathering  of  Catholics  at 
Liege,  in  1886,  he  made  it  clear  that  while  the  Scylla  of  "  stato- 
latry,"  or  excessive  confidence  in  the  state,  must  be  shunned,  it 
would  be  no  less  disastrous  to  fall  into  the  Charybdis  of  re- 
fusing legislative  protection  to  those  who  needed  it.524 

The  political  leader  of  the  Swiss  Social  Catholics  was  Gas- 
pard  Decurtins,  chief  of  the  younger  ultramontane  party. 
Hunger,  said  Decurtins,  was  neither  Catholic  nor  Protestant. 
Nor  should  social  reformers,  in  their  efforts  to  solve  the  prob- 
lem of  hunger,  refuse  to  cooperate  simply  because  they  were 
divided  on  religious  questions.  Practising  this  precept,  De- 
curtins freely  sought  the  cooperation  of  the  Socialists  and  Rad- 
icals in  order  to  bring  about  the  creation  of  a  labor  secretariat, 
paid  by  the  government  but  elected  by  workingmen's  organiza- 
tions, for  the  purpose  of  collecting  statistical  data  regarding 
labor  and  transmitting  to  the  government  the  grievances  of 
the  workingmen.525  Again,  Decurtins  solicited  the  aid  of  the 
Radicals  in  inducing  the  Swiss  Government  to  convoke  an  in- 
ternational conference  on  labor  problems,  such  as  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  maximum  limit  for  the  working-day.526  Thanks 
to  the  cooperation  of  Radicals,  Socialists,  and  Catholics,  Switz- 
erland made  relatively  rapid  progress  in  social  legislation:  in 
adopting  laws  for  accident  compensation,  limitation  of  the 
working  day,  protection  of  women  and  children,  Switzerland 
was  far  in  advance  of  France.  Decurtins  would  have  gone 
even  further;  he  would  have  introduced  compulsory  insur- 
ance against  sickness  and  accidents,  and  would  have  estab- 
lished a  minimum  wage.527  In  1890  he  and  other  Catholics 
attending  a  Radical  Congress  at  Olten  joined  with  the  Radicals 


134  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

in  formulating  demands  for  compulsory  sickness  and  accident- 
insurance,  special  privileges  for  trade  unions,  reform  of  the 
factory  laws,  and  the  ten-hour  day.528 

Less  radical  was  the  Social  Catholic  movement  in  Belgium, 
before  1891.  There  the  moderation  of  Charles  Perin  tri- 
umphed over  the  liberalism  of  Francois  Huet.529  The  latter, 
who  is  curiously  enough  regarded  by  a  learned  Protestant  his- 
torian of  political  economy  as  one  of  the  "  three  ancestors  " 
of  modern  French  Social  Catholicism,530  had  evolved  a  some- 
what visionary  philosophy  of  "  Christian  Socialism,"  which  he 
expounded  in  his  book  on  The  Social  Reign  of  Christianity 
(i853).531  Fundamentally  at  odds  with  the  main  trend  of 
Social  Catholic  thought,  Huet  denounced  the  middle  ages  while 
lauding  the  French  Revolution,  and  believed  that  "  the  true 
Christian  society"  did  not  appear  until  I78Q.532  Basing  his 
system  on  the  trilogy  of  the  Revolution, —  Liberty,  Equality, 
Fraternity, —  Huet  argued  that  property  was  an  equal  and 
natural  right  of  every  man,  since  liberty  was  impossible  with- 
out property.  Accordingly  he  proposed  that  all  "  patrimonial  " 
property, —  that  is,  property  not  acquired  by  a  man's  own 
labor, —  should  revert  to  the  state  at  the  owner's  death;  thus 
all  the  accumulated  inheritance  of  past  generations  would  be- 
come a  collective  heritage,  which  could  be  divided  among  all 
the  citizens  of  the  state,  so  that  no  man  would  be  property- 
less.533 

It  was  not  likely  that  a  doctrine  of  this  description  would 
win  general  favor.  The  Belgian  Catholics  inclined  more 
naturally  to  the  moderate  economic  philosophy  propounded, 
a  quarter  of  a  century  later,  by  Charles  Perin.  Perin,  it  will 
be  recalled,  was  heartily  opposed  to  the  political  and  social 
ideas  of  the  French  Revolution ;  he  repudiated  socialism  on  the 
one  hand  and  unrestrained  economic  individualism  on  the  other 
hand.  In  the  name  of  Christian  charity,  which  to  him  was 
"  the  first  and  last  word  "  of  social  economy,534  he  admitted  the 
necessity  of  moderate  social  legislation  for  the  repression  of 
abuses,  and  suggested  the  voluntary  formation  of  Christian 


ENCOURAGEMENT  FROM  ABROAD       135 

guilds  and  the  uplifting  influence  of  Christian  employers  as 
safe  remedies  for  the  existing  evils.535 

It  was  upon  Perm's  principles  for  the  most  part,  that  the 
Belgian  Catholics  acted.  An  "  Employers'  Union  in  favor  of 
the  Workingmen  "  ( Union  des  patrons  en  faveur  des  ouvriers) 
was  founded  under  the  influence  of  the  Bishop  of  Liege,  for 
the  purpose  of  improving  the  moral  and  material  situation  of 
the  laboring  class.  Craft  guilds  and  cooperative  societies  were 
fostered,  moderate  social  legislation  was  enacted,  and  a  lively 
interest  was  taken  in  the  formation  of  Catholic  trade  unions.536 
The  Belgian  movement,  in  a  word,  was  not  of  a  nature  to  in- 
fluence the  French  Social  Catholics  in  a  radical  direction;  it 
could  only  encourage  them  in  moderate  tendencies. 

The  English  movement,  on  the  other  hand,  was  almost  social- 
ist in  character.  By  reason  of  his  international  reputation, 
Cardinal  Manning,537  Archbishop  of  Westminster,  quickly  be- 
came one  of  the  most  prominent  leaders  in  the  Social  Catholic 
movement.  In  a  lecture  (1874)  on  the  rights  and  dignity  of 
labor,  he  showed  how  capitalism  had  acquired  such  over- 
whelming power  that  strikes  were  very  rarely  settled  in  favor 
of  the  workingmen;  he  claimed  that,  whatever  Liberal  econo- 
mists might  say  to  the  contrary,  justice  required  that  the  state 
intervene  in  the  unequal  conflict  between  capital  and  labor.538 
In  letters  to  newspapers  and  in  articles  written  for  period- 
icals.539 he  defended  the  right  of  the  workingman  to  a  liveli- 
hood, that  is  to  say,  the  right  to  work  and  the  right  to  assistance 
if  work  is  not  to  be  found.  By  his  work  on  the  Housing  Com- 
mission and  on  the  Education  Commission,  as  well  as  by  his 
remarkable  conciliatory  efforts  in  the  great  London  Dock  Strike 
of  i889,540  he  proved  that  his  was  not  a  closet-philosopher's 
view  of  social  problems.  His  practical  program,  which  he 
summarized  in  a  letter  to  the  bishop  of  Liege  in  1890  and  in 
a  commentary  on  the  papal  encyclical  in  1891,  included  the 
eight-hour  day  for  heavy  labor,  a  ten-hour  day  for  less  arduous 
employments,  Sunday  rest,  limitation  of  hours  for  women  and 
minors,  the  minimum  wage,  control  and  periodical  revision  of 


136  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

contracts  between  capital  and  labor,  exclusion  of  young  per- 
sons and  women  from  laborious  and  unwholesome  employ- 
ments.541 

A  contemporary  comment  on  Cardinal  Manning's  attitude, 
by  a  French  anticlerical  politician,  is  worth  quoting.  Cardinal 
Manning,  said  Eugene  Spuller,  disliked  to  be  called  a  socialist 
but  was  in  fact  nothing  less  than  a  socialist. 

It  is  just  as  Count  Albert  de  Mun  in  France  does  not  wish  to  be 
called  a  Socialist  but  certainly  is  one,  neither  more  nor  less  than  M. 
de  Curtins  in  Switzerland  and  several  other  conservatives  in  differ- 
ent countries  of  Europe,  in  Belgium,  in  Germany,  and  even  in 
Austria,  where  Prince  Aloysius  von  Lichtenstein,  an  aristocrat  of 
the  noblest  lineage,  is  a  Socialist  without  consenting  to  avow  it.542 

Another  English  prelate,  the  Bishop  of  Nottingham,  Mgr. 
Edward  G.  Bagshawe,  was  even  more  emphatic,  if  possible, 
than  Cardinal  Manning  in  denouncing  present  abuses  and  in 
advocating  state-intervention,  regulation  of  wages,  reduction 
of  the  working  day,  restraint  of  capitalism  and  of  landlordism. 
His  strong  interventionist  views  were  very  prominently  brought 
before  the  Catholic  congress  of  Liege,  in  1890,  but  even  prior 
to  that  date  they  had  excited  the  interest  of  Catholics  on  the 
Continent.543 

In  Spain  and  Italy  there  were  no  Social  Catholic  movements 
comparable  to  those  just  described;  nevertheless,  an  awakening 
interest  was  shown  in  the  former  country  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Madrid,  by  the  Bishop  of  Vich,  by  Juan  Orti,  who  translated 
Hitze's  Die  Sociale  Frage,  by  the  Conservative  leader  Canovas 
del  Castillo,  who  advocated  labor  legislation,  and  by  Count  de 
Torreanar,  who  lauded  the  guild  system.  In  Italy,  the  dis- 
cussion of  social  problems  was  stimulated  by  such  writings  as 
Rev.  Carlo  Maria  Curci's  Christian  Socialism  (Di  un  socialismo 
cristiano  nella  quistione  operaia,  etc.,  Rome  1885)  ;  Rev.  Mat- 
teo  Liberatore's  Principles  of  Political  Economy  {Principii  di 
economia  politica,  etc.,  Rome,  1889,  Eng.  trans.,  London,  1891)  ; 
Antonio  Bum's  Labor  (II  Lavoro,  studio  sociale,  Rome  1888)  ; 
Cardinal  Capecelatro's  article  in  La  Compania  sacra  of  No- 


ENCOURAGEMENT  FROM  ABROAD        137 

vember,  1890,  and  Mgr.  Bonomelli's  pastoral  letter  on  "  Capital 
and  Labor"  (iSgi).544 

That  a  similar  tendency  was  manifesting  itself  across  the 
Atlantic,  in  the  United  States,  was  proved  by  the  Knights  of 
Labor  episode.  The  "  Noble  and  Holy  Order  of  the  Knights  of 
Labor,"  founded  as  a  secret  society  in  1869  by  Uriah  Stephens, 
had  become  a  very  powerful  labor  organization  by  the  'eighties, 
and  was  advocating  principles  some  of  which  have  since  been 
realized  in  fact.  The  program  included  the  eight-hour  day, 
industrial  arbitration,  equal  pay  for  equal  work,  the  graduated 
income-tax,  prohibition  of  child-labor,  legal  recognition  of 
trade  unions,  government-ownership  of  railways,  telegraphs, 
and  telephones,  taxation  of  uncultivated  land  held  for  specula- 
tive purposes,  establishment  of  government  bureaus  of  labor- 
statistics,  promotion  of  cooperative  distribution  and  produc- 
tion. 

When,  by  its  activity  in  connection  with  strikes  and  boycotts, 
the  order  acquired  the  reputation  of  subversive  militancy, 
Pope  Leo  XIII  was  induced  to  condemn  it.  Cardinal  Gibbons 
(Archbishop  of  Baltimore)  went  to  Rome  in  person  and  pre- 
sented a  memorial  stating  that  the  statutes  of  the  order  were 
in  no  way  repugnant  to  the  doctrines  of  the  Church,  and  that 
on  the  contrary,  the  existing  abuses  of  capitalism  and  the  piti- 
less exploitation  of  labor  were  so  notorious  that  the  working 
classes  had  a  just  right  to  organize  in  self-defense;  therefore, 
the  condemnation  of  the  Knights  would  cause  a  very  painful 
impression  in  the  United  States.  Cardinal  Manning  likewise 
made  a  plea  in  behalf  of  the  order.  The  argument  of  the  two 
cardinals  was  heeded,  the  sentence  was  revoked,  and  Catholics 
were  permitted  to  participate  in  the  Knights  of  Labor  move- 
ment. As  the  controversy  had  been  followed  with  keen  in- 
terest not  only  in  America  but  in  Europe  as  well,  this  victory 
served  as  a  notable  encouragement  to  Social  Catholic  views.545 

The  foregoing  sketch  of  Social  Catholic  movements  in  other 
countries,  prior  to  1891,  should  make  it  easier  to  see  the  French 
movement  in  its  proper  setting.  Without  detracting  from  its 
spontaneity,  and,  in  some  sense,  its  originality,  one  may  say 


138  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

that  the  movement  led  by  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  La  Tour  du 
Pin,  and  their  friends  was  in  reality  part  of  an  international 
tendency,  and  was  influenced  and  encouraged  in  no  small  degree 
by  the  parallel  movements  in  other  countries,  especially  in  Ger- 
many, Austria,  and  Switzerland. 

Circumstantial  evidence  that  the  French  leaders  were  in 
close  contact  with  the  German,  Swiss  and  Austrian  groups  is 
easy  to  discover.  De  Mun  and  La  Tour  du  Pin  owed  their 
inspiration,  in  part,  to  what  they  had  learned  of  the  German 
movement  while  prisoners  in  Germany.546  La  Tour  du  Pin 
more  than  once  declared,  in  later  years,  that  the  French  move- 
ment looked  to  von  Ketteler  as  one  of  its  inspirers.547  The  re- 
view founded  by  the  French  Social  Catholic  leaders,  U Asso- 
ciation catholique,  was  kept  in  touch  with  German  affairs  by 
regular  correspondents  in  Germany.  In  1883-1886  it  published 
a  series  of  articles  by  one  of  the  German  leaders,  J.  Loese- 
witz,  on  labor  legislation.  The  favorable  comment  of  the  Ger- 
man Christlich-Sociale  Blatter,  on  the  French  conception  of  the 
guild  regime  was  reproduced  in  L' Association  catholique?** 

Similarly  the  editors  of  L' Association  catholique  regularly 
gave  space  to  Austrian  affairs,  and  frequently  published  articles 
by  or  concerning  the  Austrian  Social  Catholic  leaders.  When 
Dr.  Rudolph  Meyer,  the  leading  doctrinaire  of  the  Austrian 
movement,  was  compelled  to  leave  Austria,  he  visited  Paris, 
became  a  collaborator  of  L' Association  catholique,  and  made 
the  acquaintance  of  the  French  leaders.549 

With  the  Belgians,  it  goes  without  saying,  French  relations 
were  always  intimate.  International  Social  Catholic  congresses 
at  Liege  beginning  in  1886  afforded  the  best  of  opportunities 
for  the  interchange  of  ideas  not  merely  between  Belgians  and 
French,  but  among  representatives  from  Germany,  Austria, 
and  England  as  well.550 

With  the  Swiss,  also,  the  de  Mun  group  had  personal  rela- 
tions. When  in  1872  Mgr.  Mermillod  visited  France  to  solicit 
funds  for  a  defensive  campaign  against  anticlericalism  in 
Switzerland,  he  spoke  for  de  Mun's  Association  of  Catholic 
Workingmen's  Clubs,  at  the  Parisian  church  of  Sainte  Clo- 


ENCOURAGEMENT  FROM  ABROAD        139 

tilde.551  Almost  from  its  inception,  therefore,  de  Mun's  move- 
ment was  in  touch  with  the  Swiss  school.  In  1881,  Mgr. 
Mermillod  not  only  visited  the  executive  committee  of  the 
Association,  but  warmly  praised  the  doctrines  which  had  been 
elaborated  by  the  Association's  Council  of  Studies.552 

In  1884  Count  de  La  Tour  du  Pin,  in  behalf  of  the  French 
Social  Catholic  group,  proposed  to  Counts  Blome  and  Kuef- 
stein  —  two  Austrian  leaders  —  that  an  international  federa- 
tion of  social-minded  Catholics  be  formed.  The  suggestion 
was  welcomed  and  acted  upon.  A  group  of  leaders  from  the 
various  countries  met  together  in  Cardinal  Mermillod's  library 
at  Fribourg  and  formed  an  organization,  the  Catholic  Union  of 
Fribourg,  for  economic  and  social  studies.  The  Fribourg 
Union  as  a  result  of  its  conferences  succeeded  in  agreeing  upon 
a  joint  statement  of  the  Social  Catholic  position,  and  in  Febru- 
ary, 1888,  Cardinal  Mermillod  presented  the  members  of  the 
Union  to  Leo  XIII,  handing  him  a  memorial  explaining  their 
views.553  It  was  probably  this  memorial,  more  than  anything 
else,  which  proved  to  the  pope  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  an  offi- 
cial pronouncement  on  the  labor  problem,  a  pronouncement 
which  he  made  in  the  famous  Encyclical  Letter  on  the  Condi- 
tion of  the  Working  Classes,  May  15,  1891. 554 


CHAPTER  V 
VANGUARD  AND  STRAGGLERS 

IT  was  the  vanguard  of  the  Catholic  social  movement  in 
France  which,  most  of  all,  felt  the  influence  of  the  parallel 
movements  in  Germany,  in  Austria,  in  Switzerland.  And  as 
the  vanguard,  led  by  de  Mun  and  La  Tour  du  Pin,  encouraged 
by  the  news  from  abroad,  advanced  further  and  further  in 
the  path  of  social  legislation,  it  became  increasingly  evident 
that  not  all  the  French  Catholics  who  interested  themselves 
in  economic  questions  were  keeping  pace  with  the  bolder  spir- 
its. A  retrospective  glance  at  the  development  of  the  move- 
ment in  France  from  1871  to  1891  will  make  this  clear. 

The  starting-point  in  1871  was  from  the  position  taken  by 
the  two  most  eminent  Catholic  economists  of  the  period,  Le 
Play  and  Perin,  who  were  regarded  as  the  founders  of  Chris- 
tian social  economy.  It  was  an  essentially  conservative  posi- 
tion :  while  attacking  the  doctrines  of  bourgeois  economic  Lib- 
eralism, and  admitting  the  need  of  social  reform,  Le  Play  and 
Perin  would  allow  only  the  most  moderate  type  of  labor  legis- 
lation, and  trusted  in  the  main  to  the  religious  and  moralizing 
influences  of  charitable  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  upper  classes. 
Socialism  was  the  enemy,  and  social  peace,  ensured  chiefly 
through  moral  suasion,  the  desideratum-.  The  voluntary 
formation  of  guilds  and  workingmen's  friendly  societies  under 
the  benevolent  patriotism  of  Christian  employers  was  the  most 
radical  organic  reform  to  which  theorists  of  Le  Play's  and 
Perm's  type  would  grant  approval.556 

Le  Play  and  Perin,  as  has  been  said,  dominated  the  situation 
in  the  'seventies.  Of  the  three  groups  or  schools  of  Catholic 
economists  existing  at  that  period,  all  were  inspired  by  Le  Play 
or  by  Perin.  The  Societe  d'economie  sociale  and  the  Unions 

140 


VANGUARD  AND  STRAGGLERS  141 

de  la  paix  sociale  were  directly  under  Le  Play's  influence.557 
The  group  of  Catholic  jurists  and  economists  who  collaborated 
on  the  Revue  catholique  des  institutions  et  du  droit  were  of  a 
kindred  spirit.558  The  common  aim  was  to  combat  the  "  false 
doctrines  of  1789."  Count  Albert  de  Mun  and  the  group  in- 
terested in  the  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  and  the  Associa- 
tion  catholique,  though  more  concerned  with  practical  action 
and  popular  propaganda  than  with  economic  science,  recognized 
Le  Play  and  Perin  as  masters.  A  long  article  from  Perm's 
pen  was  given  the  place  of  honor  in  the  first  number  of  the 
Association  catholique.559 

The  founders  of  the  Workingmen's  Clubs  in  their  vision  of 
establishing  voluntary  Christian  guilds  were  merely  aspiring 
to  realize  Perm's  theories.  Their  relations  were  almost  equally 
good  with  Le  Play,  of  whom  La  Tour  du  Pin  was  an  enthu- 
siastic admirer.  Though  he  felt  that  de  Mun  and  La  Tour  du 
Pin  were  assigning  too  large  a  role  to  the  workingmen  in  their 
clubs,  Le  Play  gave  personal  encouragement  to  the  two  young 
reformers  in  the  early  days  of  their  work.560  And  when  Le 
Play  died,  the  Association  catholique  published  a  glowing  trib- 
ute to  him  written  by  La  Tour  du  Pin.561 

The  very  fact,  however,  that  the  organizers  of  the  Associa- 
tion of  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  had  embarked  on  a  ca- 
reer of  action  made  them  less  conservative  in  temper.  Coming 
into  personal  contact  with  the  workingmen  and  with  working- 
men's  problems  they  were  inclined  to  adopt  a  more  practical, 
clear-cut  program  than  were  the  less  active  groups.  "  We  are 
the  zouaves  of  the  Union,"  said  La  Tour  du  Pin  at  the  Union 
of  Catholic  Welfare  Societies  in  i874.562  And  the  zouaves 
soon  left  the  slower  units  of  the  army  straggling  behind. 

Little  by  little,  the  Association  of  Catholic  Workingmen's 
Clubs  took  on  the  appearance  of  a  separate  school  of  social 
economy.  In  1872,  on  La  Tour  du  Pin's  initiative,  the  As- 
sociation decided  to  institute  a  Council  of  Studies.  More  or 
less  under  the  guidance  of  La  Tour  du  Pin's  spirit,  this  Council 
of  Studies  laid  the  theoretical  and  doctrinal  foundations  for 
the  later  developments  of  the  Association's  program.  The  men 


142 

who  participated  in  its  deliberations  were  unquestionably  able 
and  earnest ;  among  them  were  Felix  de  Roquef euil,  de  Breda, 
Pere  de  Pascal,  de  Segur-Lamoignon,  Henri  Savatier,  Raoul 
Ancel,  and  Henri  Lorin.  When  the  executive  committee  of 
the  Association  founded  a  review,  L' Association  catholique,  in 
1876,  these  men,  already  trained  in  the  Council  of  Studies,  be- 
came the  editorial  board,  with  Segur-Lamoignon  as  managing 
editor,  and  the  principles  adopted  by  the  Council  of  Studies 
were  published  in  the  review.  Thus  L' Association  catholique 
became  the  organ  of  the  group  of  social  economists  who  had 
been  brought  together  by  the  Association.563 

A  report  on  the  work  of  the  Council  of  Studies,  published 
in  the  Association  catholique  for  i88i-i883,564  shows  to  what 
extent  the  doctrines  of  the  group  had  taken  definite  form  by 
that  time.  The  report  unequivocally  repudiates  economic 
Liberalism;  on  the  other  hand,  it  defends  itself  against  the 
charge  of  Socialism,  and  affirms  that  between  Socialism  and 
Liberalism  or  laissez-faire,  "  there  is  room  for  a  Christian  po- 
litical economy."  The  essence  of  Christian  political  economy, 
it  would  appear,  is  recognition  and  respect  not  of  natural  laws 
alone,  but  also  of  the  laws  of  God,  in  the  social  order;  this 
general  principle  had  been  enunciated  in  the  first  report  or 
Avis  of  the  Council  of  Studies. 

The  fourth  Avis,  on  the  subject  of  the  "  liberty  of  labor," 
exhibited  the  fundamental  antagonism  between  the  new  "  Chris- 
tian political  economy  "  and  the  prevalent  Liberal  or  orthodox 
school  of  political  economy.  Absolute  liberty  or  individual- 
ism in  industry  had  been  inaugurated  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century  by  the  edicts  of  Turgot  and  the  decrees  of 
the  revolutionary  National  Assembly,  sweeping  away  the  old 
guild  organizations  and  interdicting  any  form  of  trade  unions. 
This  liberty,  said  the  Avis,  "  favors  the  absorption  of  the  weak 
by  the  strong,  of  him  who  has  only  his  arms  or  his  industrious- 
ness  by  him  who  has  a  large  capital."  The  doctrine  of  the  ab- 
solute "  liberty  of  labor  "  was  condemned  in  the  Avis,  as  "  a 
rationalist  and  materialistic  theory,"  false  in  principle  and 
calamitous  in  effect. 


VANGUARD  AND  STRAGGLERS  143 

"  For  our  part,"  said  Count  de  Roquefeuil,  who  was  par- 
ticularly active  in  the  work  of  preparing  the  reports  of  the 
Council  of  Studies, 

far  from  admitting  that  the  Liberal  school  of  political  economy  has 
contributed  to  the  welfare  of  the  poorer  classes,  we  positively 
attribute  to  its  laws  the  scandalous  increase  of  pauperism,  the 
perils  of  the  labor  question,  the  social  conflict;  and  when  the  labor 
world,  represented  by  millions  of  men,  who,  it  must  be  admitted, 
are  not  all  bandits  or  fools,  suffers  and  says  that  it  is  wronged,  we 
do  not  believe  that  in  order  to  be  just,  or  even  to  calm  the  working- 
man,  it  is  sufficient  to  counsel  resignation  and  patience;  and  we 
deny  that  when  there  is  war,  antagonism,  or  debate  between  indi- 
viduals or  classes  or  interests,  the  sole  duty  of  the  social  authorities 
is  to  recommend  to  everybody  the  pure  love  of  God  and  the  practice 
of  all  the  virtues,  and  nothing  more.565 

The  state,  in  the  view  of  the  Council  of  Studies,  had  not 
merely  a  right  to  intervene,  but  a  duty.  Justice  —  not  merely 
charity  — "  imposes  upon  the  legislator  the  duty  of  recognizing 
and  protecting  the  rights  of  the  laborer  "  (Avis  No.  VII).  In 
the  name  of  justice  and  social  peace,  the  workingman  was  en- 
titled to  the  means  of  satisfying  the  conditions  of  an  honor- 
able existence  in  his  class,  the  conditions  being  specifically: 
the  possibility  of  founding  and  possessing  a  home  and  of  rais- 
ing a  family;  advancement  in  his  trade;  the  possibility  of  sav- 
ing against  unemployment,  sickness,  accidents,  and  old  age. 
These  were  his  just  rights,  because  "  labor  is  not  a  commodity," 
to  be  bought  and  sold  at  market  prices,  but  a  human  act. 

Discussing  more  concretely  the  duties  which  justice  imposed 
upon  the  state,  Avis  No.  V  dismissed  as  equally  false  the  so- 
cialist theory  that  the  state  should  substitute  itself  for  private 
initiative  as  the  great  agent  of  production,  and  the  doctrine  of 
laissez-faire,  condemning  the  state  to  passive  indifference  in 
labor  questions.  According  to  Christian  economy,  it  was  not 
the  duty  of  the  state  to  become  the  distributor  of  labor  and  of 
food  but  it  was  its  duty  to  enact  labor  legislation,  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  weak  and  the  poor.  Specifically,  the  law  should 
(i)  assure  the  workingman  of  his  Sunday  holiday;  (2)  restrict 


144  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

the  hours  of  labor  and  the  employment  of  women  and  children, 
enforce  the  separation  of  sexes  in  industry,  and  ensure  salu- 
brious and  moral  working  conditions  5(3)  encourage  the  forma- 
tion of  professional  associations,  the  establishment  of  collective 
funds  or  guild  patrimonies,  and  industrial  arbitration ;  (4) 
require  employers  who  have  not  established  "  guild  patri- 
monies "  to  deposit  funds  as  a  guarantee  to  the  employees 
against  sudden  cessation  of  work;  (5)  protect  national  industry 
against  foreign  competition. 

The  third  point  in  the  foregoing  list,  namely,  the  promotion 
of  professional  associations,  was  developed  in  greater  detail 
by  Avis  Nos.  II,  III,  VII,  and  VIII.566  It  was  the  only  "  effica- 
cious means  "  yet  proposed,  said  Avis  No.  Ill,  for  the  remedy 
of  the  conditions  almost  unanimously  deplored  by  moralists, 
economists,  and  official  investigators, —  conditions  leading  to 
pauperism,  industrial  anarchy,  the  decadence  of  craftsman- 
ship, the  antagonism  of  capital  and  labor. 

The  development  of  the  idea,  as  shown  by  the  successive 
Avis,  is  an  interesting  process.  No.  II  merely  admitted  that 
strikes  and  labor  conditions  were  not  to  be  condemned  as  evil 
in  principle,  provided  their  purpose  was  legitimate  and  their 
methods  orderly;  but  strikes  were  considered  injurious  to  the 
interests  of  labor.  Avis  No.  Ill  advocated  the  formation  of 
Catholic  professional  associations,  uniting  employers  and 
workingmen,  and  combining  the  principle  of  hierarchical  or- 
ganization with  the  principle  of  participation  of  labor  repre- 
sentatives in  the  management  of  the  professional  and  economic 
interests  of  the  associations.  The  idea  that  each  such  associa- 
tion should  have  the  right  to  establish  a  collective  property  or 
guild  patrimony  first  appeared  in  Avis  No.  V .  Avis  No.  VII 
defined  the  bases  of  industrial  organization  with  greater  care. 
The  fundamental  principles  should  be :  (A)  Union  of  employers 
and  workingmen,  with  a  common  interest  in  a  "  guild  patri- 
mony "  or  collective  property;  (B)  Professional  hierarchy,  i.  e., 
the  workingman's  right  of  regular  ascent,  in  his  order;  (C) 
the  union  of  similar  industries  on  a  regional  basis.  Finally, 
Avis  No.  Fill  asserted  emphatically  that  the  professional  as- 


VANGUARD  AND  STRAGGLERS  145 

sociations  or  guilds  were  not  to  be  purely  voluntary  and  free 
of  government  control.  As  this  conclusion  marks  the  beginning 
of  the  rupture  with  Perin's  conception  of  free  and  voluntary 
guilds,  it  is  worth  quoting  verbatim: 

This  restoration  of  professional  associations, —  should  it  be  purely 
spontaneous,  voluntary,  and  without  connection  with  the  political 
regime?  Assuredly  not.  The  reestablishment  of  a  guild  regime 
requires  all  the  sanctions  of  the  social  authority  permitted  by  a 
social  organization.  If  it  is  necessary,  it  would  be  puerile  to  say 
that  it  should  nevertheless  be  purely  spontaneous  and  voluntary. 
Although  no  institution  could  be  more  liberal  (in  the  good  sense 
of  the  word),  for  it  tends  to  substitute  in  the  world  of  labor  a 
regime  of  arbitral  jurisdiction  for  one  of  arbitrary  will  and  un- 
bridled force ;  nevertheless,  the  guild  regime,  in  order  to  recover 
its  function  in  the  state,  has  need  of  something  more  than  the  in- 
difference of  the  government.  In  fact,  it  is  not  by  liberty  that  the 
abuses  of  force  are  checked,  but  by  constraint  where  persuasion 
does  not  suffice.  Doubtless  the  reconstitution  of  the  guild  could 
not  be  the  work  of  a  priori  decrees ;  but  as  soon  as  this  rebirth  [of 
the  guilds],  which  is  indispensable  for  the  peace  of  the  labor  world, 
has  been  accomplished,  in  fact,  having  been  prepared  by  the  initiative 
of  Christian  employers,  it  will  be  for  the  Law  to  recognize  it  in 
right,  to  fortify  it  with  privileges,  to  direct  it  towards  its  political 
development.  But  men  of  good  will  must  not  await  the  initiative  of 
the  government  to  work  for  the  constitution  of  Christian  guild 
associations ;  from  now  on  they  must  restore  respect  for  the  prin- 
ciples of  this  form  of  organization,  demand  for  it  legal  recognition 
by  the  public  authorities,  and  at  the  same  time,  despite  momentary 
difficulties,  strive  to  create  models  of  Christian  guilds,  which  will 
give  substance  to  their  demands  and  serve  as  types  for  the  future 
restoration. 

It  is  easy  to  see  how  the  influences  of  Count  de  Mun's  convic- 
tions, of  Harmel's  practical  experiment,  and  of  the  doctrinal 
investigations  of  the  Council  of  Studies  combined  to  bring 
about  this  evolution  of  ideas  from  Avis  No.  II  to  Avis  No. 
VIII  and  to  provide  the  Association  catholique  group  with  a 
program  of  labor  organization  and  social  legislation  more  ad- 
vanced than  the  programs  of  the  other  Catholic  groups. 

Whereas  in  the  late  'seventies  there  had  been  extraordinary 
harmony  between  the  de  Mun  group,  the  Paix  sociale  or  Le 


146  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Play  group,  and  the  Revue  des  institutions  et  du  droit  group, 
consciousness  of  a  differentiation  begins  to  appear  in  the  early 
'eighties.  A  new  series  of  articles  567  in  the  Association  cath- 
olique  for  1882,  reviewing  the  progress  which  the  Association 
of  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  had  made  in  the  last  ten  years, 
showed  how  at  first  the  Association  had  found  in  Le  Play  and 
Perin  "  two  guides  who,  in  political  economy,  were  the  veritable 
pioneers  blazing  the  path  for  the  advance  of  sound  ideas  in 
our  times."  Learning  from  both,  the  writer  continues,  "  we 
did  not  become  completely  the  disciples  of  either  one  or  the 
other  .  .  .  because  the  school  of  Social  Peace,  by  reason  of 
the  character  of  its  method,  did  not  have  the  same  starting- 
point  as  we,  and  because  the  school  represented  by  Louvain 
university,  in  which  M.  Perin  then  taught,  did  not  free  itself 
rapidly  enough,  to  our  taste,  from  the  Liberal  atmosphere  which 
springs  from  Belgian  soil  as  an  historical  product.  .  .  .  We 
therefore  found  ourselves  impelled,  by  the  force  of  our  start- 
ing-point and  by  the  logic  of  our  tendencies,  into  the  paths 
opened  by  the  great  bishop  of  Mainz,  Mgr.  von  Ketteler." 

At  first  there  had  been  much  hesitation  regarding  the  pro- 
gram to  be  followed  in  dealing  with  the  labor  question,  a  sec- 
ond article  in  the  same  review  frankly  admits,  but  the  entry 
of  Count  Albert  de  Mun  into  the  political  arena  as  the  spokes- 
man of  the  Workingmen's  Clubs  had  suddenly  put  the  problem 
in  a  new  light.  "Today,  the  debate  is  closed"-  — the  labor 
question,  so  long  disregarded  by  politicians,  was  beginning  to 
claim  their  attention  by  reason  of  the  enlargement  of  popular 
demands.  Now,  instead  of  prescribing  "  resignation  or 
gendarmerie "  as  the  cure  for  labor  troubles,  the  politicians 
were  endeavoring  to  satisfy  the  masses  by  entering  into  the 
path  of  state-socialism.  And  now  "  our  adversaries  no  less 
than  our  friends  will  turn  toward  the  bench  in  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies  where  sits  our  champion,  and  will  lead  him  to  the 
speaker's  stand  ...  to  hear  what  he  thinks,  to  hear  what  we 
think,  of  the  labor  question."  "  Should  he  then  declare,"  the 
article  asks,  "  I  have  no  ideas  on  the  subject  and  my  friends 
hardly  trouble  themselves  with  it  ?  "  The  answer  of  course, 


VANGUARD  AND  STRAGGLERS  147 

is  negative.  The  situation  demanded  that  the  Council  of 
Studies  keep  pace  with  de  Mun.  In  response  to  the  demand, 
the  Council  of  Studies  had  made  rapid  progress  in  formulating 
its  theories  and  had  accepted  the  principle  of  social  legislation. 
The  principles  of  Christian  political  economy  and  social  justice 
involved,  as  corollaries,  legislation  to  ensure  Sunday  rest; 
limitation  of  the  hours  of  work;  restriction  of  the  employment 
of  women  and  children ;  establishment  of  apprenticeship ;  work- 
ingmen's  compensation;  unemployment  indemnities;  old  age 
pensions,  etc.  To  realize  these  demands,  one  must  have  re- 
course either  to  state  socialism  or  to  the  guild  system,  and 
naturally,  the  guild  system  was  preferred  as  being  free  of  the 
dangers  of  bureaucratic  tyranny. 

Recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  Association  catholiqtie  group 
was  outstripping  the  other  schools  was  forthcoming  fflom 
Charles  Perm  himself.  In  1882  Perin  took  the  Council  of 
Studies  to  task  for  what  he  interpreted  as  a  statement  that  the 
government  should  regulate  wages;  at  the  same  time  he  criti- 
cized Le  Play's  school  for  erring  in  the  opposite  direction,  by 
too  great  timidity.  To  this  attack  La  Tour  du  Pin  replied  in 
the  Association  catholique,  explaining  that  the  Council  of 
Studies  favored  not  the  direct  fixation  of  wages  by  the  govern- 
ment, but  the  organization  of  society  in  such  a  way  as  to  safe- 
guard the  laborer's  right  to  just  compensation.568 

La  Tour  du  Pin  took  this  occasion  to  remark  that  the  Cath- 
olic reaction  against  extremes  of  laissez-faire  and  Socialism 
had  been  guided  by  three  great  leaders,  von  Ketteler,  Le  Play, 
and  Perin.  The  first  had  condemned  absolutely  the  Liberal 
dogma  of  liberty  of  labor;  the  second,  following  the  method 
of  scientific  observation,  and,  living  in  an  epoch  of  great  in- 
dustrial prosperity,  had  not  been  so  pronounced  in  his  con- 
demnation of  the  abuses  of  industrial  freedom;  the  third,  fas- 
cinated by  the  industrial  prosperity  of  his  own  country  (Bel- 
gium) was  reluctant  to  condemn  the  principle  of  liberty,  which 
was  inscribed  in  the  Belgian  constitution  and  dominant  in 
Belgian  economic  and  political  life,  and  had  therefore  appealed 
to  religious  action  and  charity  as  palliatives  of  abusive  liberty. 


148  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Hence  three  distinct  schools  had  risen.  All  agreed  that  a 
sound  regime  in  industry  could  be  established  only  under  the 
influence  of  religion  and  with  the  aid  of  three  social  forces  — 
patronage,  association,  and  authority  (i  e.,  of  the  government). 
"  In  the  present  situation,"  however,  "  the  school  of  Le  Play 
appeals  above  all  to  the  traditional  exercise  of  patronage,  the 
Belgian  school  to  free  association,  and  the  German  school  to 
the  intervention  of  authority."  The  German  school,  criticized 
by  Perin,  is  defended  by  La  Tour  du  Pin.  Though  he  does 
not  clearly  say  so,  it  is  evident  that  La  Tour  du  Pin  regards 
his  own  group  not  as  a  separate  school,  but  as  a  party  of  action, 
eclectic  in  its  theory.  He  hopes  to  avert  any  break  between 
the  schools;  he  strives  to  find  points  of  resemblance  and  to 
ascribe  divergences  to  difference  of  method  rather  than  of 
principle.  Referring  especially  to  Le  Play's  school,  he  affirms, 
"  Though  we  follow  separate  paths,  we  believe  them  to  be 
essentially  converging  paths."  And  he  cites  the  resolution 
adopted  at  the  congress  of  Catholic  Welfare  Societies  at  Autun 
in  1882  endorsing  the  guild  program  and  de  Mun's  views,  as 
evidence  that  it  was  possible  for  all  Catholics  interested  in  labor 
problems  to  preserve  a  united  front.569 

Less  than  two  years  later,  however,  La  Tour  du  Pin  was 
compelled  to  recognize  that  the  divergences  between  his  group 
and  the  others  were  increasing.  While  the  Council  of  Studies 
had  been  placing  the  program  of  the  Workingmen's  Clubs  on 
a  more  and  more  advanced  ground,  the  disciples  of  Le  Play 
and  Perin  had  failed  to  keep  pace.  His  own  group,  he  re- 
peated, was  eclectic :  it  had  declared  with  Perin  that  the  economy 
of  Christian  societies  should  be  Christian  in  spirit;  with  Le 
Play's  "  Social  Peace  "  school,  it  had  agreed  that  the  traditions 
of  prosperous  epochs  must  be  given  due  consideration;  and 
in  von  Ketteler's  school  it  had  found  these  principles  affirmed 
and  given  legislative  application.  It  was  von  Ketteler's  school, 
"  the  influence  of  which  we  have  felt  most  of  all."  Thus  the 
Council  of  Studies  had  arrived  at  its  own  distinctive  formula, 
— "  the  guild  regime  based  on  the  privileged  guild." 

Perin  himself,  however,  was  transferring  his  interest  from 


VANGUARD  AND  STRAGGLERS  149 

social  economy  to  international  law,  and  his  followers  were 
trusting  to  freedom  of  association  put  into  practice  by  mixed 
associations  of  employers  and  workingmen.  Such  free  asso- 
ciations, La  Tour  du  Pin  remarked,  could  not  be  called  guilds ; 
the  guild  must  partake  of  a  public  nature;  its  successful  restora- 
tion required  public  recognition  and  support.  Moreover, 
Perm's  disciples  seemed  to  be  content  to  remain  closet  philoso- 
phers, making  little  or  no  effort  to  put  their  principles  into 
practise. 

As  regards  Le  Play's  followers,  who  formed  the  so-called 
"  Social  Peace "  school,  they  placed  too  much  confidence  in 
"  patronage  "  (i.  e.,  the  benevolent  influence  of  the  employers), 
were  too  anxious  to  preserve  the  "  modern  principle  of  liberty  " 
in  industry,  and  had  too  much  horror  of  social  legislation. 

La  Tour  du  Pin,  in  the  name  of  his  own  group,  insisted  upon 
the  necessity  of  labor  legislation.  But  he  still  hoped  that  Le 
Play's  followers  would  renounce  their  "  coquetry  with  the 
Liberal  school,"  and  that  the  Belgian  school  would  see  the  error 
of  its  ways,  to  the  end  that  all  might  unite  in  fruitful  collabora- 
tion.570 

The  divergence  only  increased  as  the  years  passed.  The 
Council  of  Studies  and  the  editors  of  the  Association  catholique, 
drawing  still  closer  to  the  German,  Austrian,  and  Swiss  Social 
Catholics,  became  more  strongly  interventionist  than  ever. 
Their  leader,  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  as  we  have  seen,  presented 
a  series  of  remarkable  bills,  embodying  a  comprehensive  scheme 
of  social  legislation,  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  between  1886 
and  1891.  De  Mun  even  included  the  eight-hour  day  and  the 
minimum  wage  in  his  program,  as  he  explained  in  an  interview 
with  an  English  journalist  in  October,  i889.571  And  even  on 
this  point  the  Association  catholique  supported  him.  Com- 
menting on  the  interview,  the  managing  editor  of  the  review 
declared  that  de  Mun,  in  taking  an  advanced  position  as  regards 
the  social  question,  was  acting,  as  he  had  always  acted,  in  per- 
fect loyalty  to  the  teachings  of  the  Holy  See,  and  was  not 
weakening  his  own  position  "  at  the  head  of  the  Catholic  move- 
ment." 5T2 


150  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Le  Play  school  suffered  schism  and 
retrogression.  At  the  close  of  1885  Demolins  seceded  from 
La  Reforme  sociale,  the  organ  of  the  "  Social  Peace  "  school, 
and  founded  a  new  review,  La  Science  sociale.  La  Science 
sociale  claimed  to  supplement  Le  Play's  method  of  monographic 
scientific  observation  by  de  Tourville's  method  of  classifying 
sociological  data.  As  regards  practical  conclusions,  the  new 
school  tended  toward  the  exaltation  of  individualism,  and  of 
private  initiative;  consequently,  it  rejected  any  intervention 
or  industrial  organization  which  might  impede  the  development 
of  private  initiative.  It  was  a  new  scientific  version  of  laissez- 
faire,  and  as  such  could  not  but  be  repugnant  to  the  Social 
Catholic  school,  which  made  repudiation  of  laissez-faire  a 
capital  point.573 

The  Reforme  sociale,  attempting  to  adhere  more  closely  to 
Le  Play's  spirit,  was  weakened  by  dissension,  and  strove  so 
desperately  to  conciliate  its  opponents  that  it  laid  itself  open 
more  than  ever  to  the  charge  of  coquetting  with  economic 
liberalism,  and  became  more  than  ever  estranged  from  the 
followers  of  de  Mun  and  La  Tour  du  Pin.  In  1886  we  find 
a  writer  in  La  Reforme  sociale  discussing  the  question  of  com- 
pulsory insurance  of  workingmen  against  accidents  and  coming 
to  the  conclusion  that,  although  the  bill  which  Count  Albert  de 
Mun  had  presented  for  compulsory  insurance  was  the  least 
objectionable  of  the  various  schemes  under  consideration,  the 
whole  principle  of  compulsory  insurance  was  wrong.574  Four 
years  later  the  conflict  of  views  was  even  more  openly  declared. 
In  May,  1890,  La  Reforme  sociale  published  with  an  editorial 
note  of  commendation  an  article  which  candidly  attacked  de 
Mun's  social  program  as  unsound  and  positively  dangerous.575 

The  moment  had  come,  said  the  author  of  the  article  in  ques- 
tion, to  examine  seriously  the  Labor  Regulation  Bill  which  de 
Mun  had  recently  presented  in  parliament.576 

"  By  reason  of  the  rightful  prestige  which  M.  le  comte  de 
Mun  enjoys,  the  general  public  is  led  to  consider  his  doctrines 
as  the  doctrines  of  the  Catholics,  and  to  identify  his  doctrines 
with  those  of  the  Church."  Nothing  daunted  by  de  Mun's  in- 


VANGUARD  AND  STRAGGLERS  151 

fluence,  however,  the  author  —  M.  de  'Moly  —  declares  that 
"  if  the  position  of  M.  de  Mun  and  his  great  authority  make 
contradiction  the  more  difficult,  they  also  render  it  the  more 
necessary."  Catholics  must  be  warned  against  accepting  de 
Mun's  leadership  in  social  questions. 

Before  delivering  his  attack,  de  Moly  explains  that  with  two 
points  of  de  Mun's  bill  he  is  in  substantial  agreement.  The 
prohibition  of  Sunday  labor  is  praiseworthy.  And  the  articles 
protecting  women  and  children  are  not  bad  in  principle,  al- 
though there  are  possible  practical  objections  to  the  immediate 
and  absolute  suppression  of  child-labor  and  woman-labor  by 
law. 

The  main  point  at  issue  is  the  legal  restriction  of  the  work- 
ing day  for  adult  male  laborers.  De  Mun's  bill  provides  a  ten- 
hour  day,  or,  rather,  a  58  hour  week.  De  Moly  points  out  that 
the  restriction  of  the  working  day  will  not  stop  at  ten  hours. 
De  Mun,  he  says,  has  admitted  that  the  eight-hour  day  would  be 
preferable,  and  that  only  reasons  of  expediency  compel  him  to 
propose  a  ten-hour  day  instead.  Thus  de  Mun's  program  pre- 
sents "  striking  analogies  "  with  the  Socialist  program.  State- 
intervention,  says  de  Moly,  "  would  repose  on  principles  and 
doctrines  which  would  fatally  lead  to  Socialism."  To  show 
how  socialistic  de  Mun  has  become,  de  Moly  quotes  the  follow- 
ing statement  by  a  Socialist  deputy,  Ferroul,  respecting  the 
Labor  Regulation  Bill :  "  I  have  read  M.  de  Mun's  explana- 
tions and  my  friends  and  I  can  only  applaud  them;  his  de- 
mands are  in  reality  nothing  else  than  the  demands  formulated 
by  the  Socialist  congresses."  This  in  itself  should  be  enough 
to  condemn  de  Mun's  ideas. 

De  Mun's  proposals  are  not  only  socialistic ;  they  are  danger- 
ous. If  his  enthusiastic  effort  to  shorten  the  hours  of  labor 
should  succeed,  de  Mun  would  ruin  employers.  "  The  laud- 
able desire  to  cure  a  particular  evil  may  engender  a  much  more 
terrible  evil,  the  suppression  of  industry." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  no  real  need  for  such  legislation, 
de  Moly  contends.  In  the  great  industries, —  mines,  metal- 
lurgy, glass-works,  textile  mills, —  to  which  de  Mun's  bill  spe- 


152  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

cially  applies,  "  there  may  have  been  some  abuses  in  the  past, 
but  today,  and  in  fact,  these  abuses  do  not  exist."  In  mines 
and  metal-works  the  ten-hour  day  prevails ;  in  glass-works, 
the  eight-hour  day ;  as  for  the  textile  mills,  the  effective  working 
day  "  often  exceeds  ten  hours  and  sometimes  reaches  eleven 
or  even  twelve,"  but,  "  thanks  to  the  admirable  discoveries  of 
contemporary  science,"  this  work  is  not  arduous,  and  the 
worker  who  tends  a  machine  "  passes  part  of  the  day  in  a  state 
which  resembles  repose."  De  Moly  concludes  that  "  the  gen- 
eral conditions  of  adult  labor  in  France  do  not  necessitate  and 
do  not  justify  state-intervention." 

Catholics,  therefore,  should  content  themselves  with  demand- 
ing liberty  of  religious  association  and  liberty  of  association. 
"  And  with  these  liberties  and  the  aid  of  God,  Who  will  not 
fail  them,  all  evils  will  be  cured  in  so  far  as  is  humanly  possible, 
and  social  peace  and  the  prosperity  of  our  dear  country  will 
at  last  be  assured."  Let  the  Catholics  repudiate  socialistic 
propaganda;  in  so  doing  they  would  be  following  the  example 
of  "  great  and  glorious  defenders  of  the  truth  and  of  the 
Catholic  cause  in  France,  among  whom  it  will  suffice  to  men- 
tion a  bishop  like  Mgr.  Freppel,  orators  and  statesmen  like 
MM.  Buffet,  Chesnelong,  and  Keller,  eminent  professors  and 
economists  like  MM.  Claudio  Jannet  and  Bechaux,  religious 
scholars  and  theologians  like  the  Rev.  Fristot,  Forbes,  Gaudron, 
Sambin,  and  Ludovic  de  Besse,  profound  jurists  like  the  editors 
and  administrators  of  the  Revue  catholique  des  institutions  et 
du  droit,  and  many  others.  .  .  ." 

To  this  attack  on  the  doctrines  of  de  Mun  and  of  the  Associa- 
tion catholique  the  editors  of  La  Reforme  sociale  appended  a 
note,  asserting  that  their  review  had  "  never  varied  on  the 
fundamentals  of  the  question  here  treated."  The  solution  of 
economic  problems,  "  it  should  never  be  forgotten,  will  depend 
far  less  on  new  economic  institutions  or  on  multifarious  legal 
prescriptions  than  on  moral  reform  and  the  practice  of  duty." 
The  editors  regret  that  "  generous  impulses,  forgetful  of  the 
lessons  of  experience,  run  the  risk  of  leading  to  theories  fraught 


VANGUARD  AND  STRAGGLERS  153 

with  illusions  and  perils."  The  rebuke  to  de  Mun  is  obvious 
enough. 

Perin,  too,  became  alarmed  at  what  he  viewed  as  the  social- 
istic tendency  of  the  school  that  was  growing  up  around  the 
Association  catholique.  He,  too,  urgently  warned  the  Catholics 
to  beware  of  state  socialism.  Socialism  was  the  great  menace 
of  the  day.577 

An  arena  in  which  the  champions  of  the  various  schools 
might  break  lances  with  each  other  was  afforded  by  the  Social 
Work  Congresses  at  Liege,  in  1886,  1887,  and  1890,  where 
leading  Catholic  social  workers,  economists,  and  politicians 
from  Belgium,  France,  Switzerland,  Germany,  and  other  coun- 
tries met  to  debate  social  problems.  At  the  first  of  these  con- 
gresses, in  September,  1886,  the  anti-interventionists  were 
worsted.  "  Under  the  impulsion  of  the  most  influential  mem- 
bers of  the  German  Center  and  of  the  Catholic  Workingmen's 
Clubs  of  France,  at  the  first  onset,  they  [the  assembled  dele- 
gates] broke  with  the  Manchester  school  [of  economic  liberal- 
ism] and  adhered  unreservedly  to  Christian  political 
economy."  578  The  congress  voted  resolutions  favoring  legal 
encouragement  of  mixed  trade  unions,  legal  regulation  of  child- 
labor  and  woman-labor,  compulsory  accident  insurance  (de- 
spite the  strenuous  opposition  of  the  non-interventionists),  leg- 
islation against  alcoholism,  and  legislation  to  promote  housing 
reform.579 

The  second  congress,  in  1887,  went  still  further.  As  one 
observer  remarked,  "  In  spite  of  the  traditional  ode  chanted 
by  several  reactionaries  to  the  old  theme  of  liberty  in  everything 
and  for  everything,  the  Congress  appealed  to  government  inter- 
vention." 58°  Two  applications  of  the  interventionist  thesis 
were  adopted,  namely,  labor  legislation  concerning  mines,  and 
social  insurance.  As  regards  the  former  the  Congress  ap- 
proved the  principle  that  laws  should  be  enacted  excluding 
women  from  work  in  the  pits,  excluding  all  children  under 
twelve  years  from  the  mines,  limiting  the  labor  of  young  per- 
sons (twelve  to  sixteen  years)  to  twelve  hours  a  dav.  and  pro- 


154  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

hibiting  night  work  for  women  and  children.  As  regards  the 
latter,  the  Congress  approved :  ( i )  compulsory  accident  insur- 
ance, to  be  paid  for  by  the  employers,  and  to  be  conducted 
by  regional  associations  of  employers;  (2)  compulsory  sickness 
insurance,  to  be  paid  for  by  employers  and  workingmen  equally, 
and  to  be  administered  by  associations  of  employers  and  work- 
ingmen in  each  industry,  labor  and  capital  being  equally  repre- 
sented. The  Congress  was  not  ready,  however,  to  accept  the 
same  principle  for  old-age  pensions.581 

At  the  third  congress  of  Liege,  in  September,  1890,  opposi- 
tion to  social  legislation  was  triumphantly  overridden  by  the 
ideas  of  which  de  Mun  and  the  Council  of  Studies,  in  common 
with  the  Austrians,  Germans,  and  Swiss,  had  long  been  enthusi- 
astic champions.  At  the  very  outset,  a  letter  from  Cardinal 
Manning,  strongly  advocating  social  legislation,  sounded  the 
key-note.  "  The  mass  of  delegates  without  fixed  views  found 
themselves,  from  the  start,  carried  far  beyond  moderate  opin- 
ions and  swept  to  the  Extreme  Left  of  Christian  Socialism."  582 
The  Congress  recognized  the  "  necessity  of  extending  without 
delay  the  guild  organization  of  society,"  favored  an  international 
agreement  for  the  legal  limitation  of  the  working  day  for  men, 
reaffirmed  the  principle  of  obligatory  accident  and  sickness  in- 
surance, strengthened  its  plank  on  old-age  pensions,  advocated 
the  legal  prohibition  of  child  labor  ( 14  years  for  northern  and 
twelve  for  southern  countries),  the  establishment  of  a  maxi- 
mum working  day  of  8^2,  hours  for  women  and  children,  pro- 
hibition of  night  work  and  Sunday  work  for  women  and  chil- 
dren, and  six  weeks'  rest  for  women  after  child-birth.  Even 
the  minimum  wage  question  was  debated,  but  the  anti-inter- 
ventionists, led  by  Mgr.  Freppel,  revolted  against  quite  so 
drastic  a  decision,  and  the  proposal  was  tabled.  Altogether, 
the  resolutions  of  the  Congress  represented  a  brilliant  victory 
for  social  legislation. 

Sorely  discomfited,  the  moderates  complained  that  the  Con- 
gress had  been  dominated  by  "  Christian  Socialists  "  and  "  State 
Socialists." 583  Under  the  patronage  of  Mgr.  Freppel,  who 
declared  that  he  did  not  want  "  either  state  socialism  or  Chris- 


VANGUARD  AND  STRAGGLERS  155 

tian  socialism," 584  a  rival  congress  was  held  at  Angers  in 
October,  and  a  rival  organization  was  set  up, —  the  "  Catholic 
Society  for  Political  and  Social  Economy  " —  with  the  express 
aim  of  opposing  state  socialism.585  The  movement  for  labor 
association,  according  to  Mgr.  Freppel's  views,  was  to  be  en- 
couraged, but  enthusiasm  for  the  idea  should  not  carry  its 
advocates  to  the  length  of  demanding  obligatory  guilds,  de- 
structive of  industrial  liberty.  Mgr.  Freppel's  followers  were 
drawn  chiefly  from  the  ranks  of  Le  Play's  and  Perm's  disciples. 
The  Catholic  jurists  who  controlled  the  Revue  catholique  des 
institutions  et  du  droit  were  particularly  prominent  in  the  new 
association, — so  much  so,  in  fact,  that  their  review  became  its 
organ.586  In  their  opinion,  wages  must  be  determined  by  sup- 
ply and  demand,  compulsory  social  insurance  was  repugnant 
to  natural  law,  and  state-intervention  in  labor  questions  must 
be  restricted  to  the  narrowest  limits.587 

Commenting  on  Mgr.  Freppel's  manoeuvre,  an  anticlerical 
publicist  declared  that  de  Mun  was  in  reality  a  Socialist,  vehe- 
mently as  de  Mun  himself  might  deny  it.  "  Count  Albert  de 
Mun  is  a  Socialist,  and  it  is  not  without  just  motives  that  there 
has  been  formed,  among  the  Catholics,  a  project  to  finish  once 
and  for  all  with  the  dangerous  tendencies  of  M.  de  Mun  and 
his  friends."  588 

The  year  1890,  in  short,  found  the  Social  Catholic  vanguard, 
represented  by  de  Mun,  La  Tour  du  Pin,  and  the  Council  of 
Studies,  definitely  separated  from  the  stragglers,  represented 
by  Mgr.  Freppel,  the  jurists,  the  Revue  catholique  des  institu- 
tions et  du  droit,  La  Reforme  sociale,  and  La  Science  sociale. 

Fully  aware  of  the  situation,  de  Mun  made  a  great  effort  to 
restore  unity.  In  the  first  number  of  the  Association  catho- 
lique for  1891,  he  announced  that  the  review  would  henceforth 
be  independent  of  the  Workingmen's  Clubs.  Thus  he  hoped, 
the  Workingmen's  Clubs  would  not  be  held  responsible  for  the 
radical  theories  put  forward  by  certain  of  the  contributors  to 
the  review,  and  might  enlist  the  cooperation  of  conservatives 
unable  to  accept  the  review's  doctrine.  The  review,  on  the 
other  hand,  would  be  free  to  adopt  a  more  eclectic  policy,  and, 


156  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

by  welcoming  contributions  from  the  various  Catholic  groups, 
help  to  restore  harmony.  Count  de  Mun  was  conciliatory 
almost  to  the  point  of  surrender.  Mgr.  Freppel  was  willing 
to  admit  state-intervention  for  the  protection  of  rights  and 
repression  of  abuses ;  all  Catholics  could  agree  on  this  formula, 
said  de  Mun.  It  was  only  in  its  practical  application  that  dis- 
putes arose.  All  were  agreed  on  legislative  restriction  of 
child-labor  and  of  the  employment  of  young  persons  and 
women.  On  the  limitation  of  hours  for  adults,  there  was  no 
agreement  as  yet.  The  minimum  wage  question  and  social 
insurance  could  be  left  to  the  guilds  or  to  arbitration  boards 
representing  the  interested  parties.  Almost  all  Catholics  agreed 
that  the  organization  of  guilds  was  desirable.  With  so  much 
in  common,  the  various  schools  ought  not  to  find  union  diffi- 
cult.589 Cardinal  Manning  and  other  prelates  hastened  to  praise 
de  Mun's  conciliatory  effort.590  It  was  at  this  juncture  that 
Leo  XIII  intervened.  The  Encyclical  Letter  on  the  Condition 
of  the  Working  Classes,  May  15,  1891,  appeared  just  at  the 
moment  when  the  advance-guard  of  the  French  Social  Catholic 
movement  had  become  separated  from  the  stragglers,  and  was 
striving  desperately  to  reestablish  the  lines  of  communication. 
With  the  encyclical,  the  movement  enters  a  new  phase. 


CHAPTER  VI 
EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION 

"  ON  THE  CONDITION  OF  THE  WORKING  CLASSES  " 
(1891) 

THE  Italian  nobleman  who  in  1878  ascended  the  papal 
throne  as  Leo  XIII 591  had  already  given  evidence  that  he  was 
neither  oblivious  to  the  social  trend  of  contemporary  Catholic 
thought  nor  unmindful  of  the  problem  of  the  proletariat. 
In  the  spring  of  1877  —  the  year  in  which  occurred  the  death 
of  the  great  German  pioneer  of  Social  Catholicism,  Baron  von 
Ketteler,592  —  he  had  written  a  pastoral  letter  dealing  with  the 
social  question.  He  was  then  Archbishop  of  Perugia.  "  The 
modern  schools  of  political  economy,"  he  had  said,  "  see  in  a 
man  nothing  but  a  machine,  more  or  less  precious  as  it  is  more 
or  less  productive.  Hence  the  contempt  with  which  human 
morality  is  regarded ;  hence  this  shameful  abuse  of  poverty  and 
of  weakness."  Even  in  countries  reputed  to  be  the  most  pro- 
gressive, excessive  hours  of  labor  were  imposed  upon  the  toilers 
in  industry.  The  sight  of  children  shut  up  in  factories,  con- 
demned to  premature  labor,  must  provoke  indignation  in  every 
generous  heart.  Excessive  labor  was  not  merely  exhausting 
and  wearing  out  the  bodies  of  the  working-people;  it  was  be- 
numbing the  intellectual  life  of  the  wretched  victims  of  the 
modern  industrial  system,  degrading  them,  and  ruining  soul  as 
well  as  body.593 

After  his  coronation  as  pope,  he  almost  immediately  issued  a 
vigorous  encyclical  "  Concerning  Modern  Errors,  Socialism, 
etc."  (Quod  Apostoliti  Muneris,  Dec.  28,  1878)  594  and  an- 
other recommending  the  study  of  the  philosophy  of  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas  (Aeterni  Patris,  Aug.  4,  1879)  ,595  The  former  de- 
nounced the  agitators  who,  calling  themselves  "  Socialists,  Com- 
munists, or  Nihilists,"  were  seeking  to  destroy  all  social  order 

157 


158  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

and  had  no  respect  for  anything  that  was  written  in  either 
divine  or  human  law.  Socialism  in  Italy  at  that  time  was 
assuming  a  peculiarly  violent  revolutionary  character ;  the  influ- 
ence of  Bakunin,  that  Russian  arch-apostle  of  assassination, 
terrorism,  and  destructive  violence,  was  very  strong;  in  fact, 
the  proletarian  movement  was  perhaps  more  anarchist  than 
socialist.  Revolutionary  societies  took  as  names  such  slogans 
as  La  Dinamite  (Dynamite),  or  Morte  ai  Borghesi  (Death  to 
the  Bourgeois).  Bakunin's  influence  helps  to  explain  the 
grouping  of  "  Socialists,  Communists,  or  Nihilists  "  in  the  papal 
denunciation.  These  revolutionists,  he  declared,  wished  to  de- 
stroy all  authority,  the  sanctity  of  marriage,  the  right  of  private 
property.  The  solution  of  the  labor  problem  was  not  to  be 
reached  by  such  methods,  but  rather  by  the  encouragement  of 
"  associations  for  artisans  and  laborers  and  by  the  influence  of 
religion."  "  The  Church  of  Christ,"  he  believed,  "  is  possessed 
of  power  to  stave  off  the  pest  of  Socialism."  598 

The  second  encyclical,  on  St.  Thomas  Aquinas,  is  not  without 
social  significance.  This  medieval  theologian  and  philosopher, 
it  must  be  remembered,  had  provided  von  Ketteler  with  the 
philosophical  basis  for  a  social  program.597  The  Council  of 
Studies  of  the  Workingmen's  Clubs  in  France  habitually  turned 
to  the  same  source  for  principles  from  which  to  deduce  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  the  rights  of  labor  and  in  favor  of  social 
legislation.598  Leo  XIII's  interest  in  St.  Thomas,  therefore, 
was  a  good  augury  for  the  Social  Catholic  movement. 

The  pope  was  thoroughly  aware  of  the  development  of  Social 
Catholicism  in  France,  in  Germany,  in  Austria,  in  Switzer- 
land,599 and  seemed  to  sympathize  with  it.  He  received  memo- 
randa from  Cardinal  Mermillod  setting  forth  the  views  of  an 
international  association  of  Social  Catholic  leaders — the  Union 
of  Freiburg ;  60°  he  listened  with  approval  to  the  pleas  of  Car- 
dinals Gibbons  and  Manning  in  defense  of  the  American 
Knights  of  Labor;801  in  1885  a  hundred  French  capitalists 
brought  him  an  address  signed  by  a  thousand  employers  who 
believed  that  "  the  Church  alone  can  reestablish  in  the  industrial 
family  the  practice  of  justice  and  charity  " ; e02  in  1887  a  pil- 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  159 

grimage  of  French  workingmen,  organized  by  Leon  Harmel, 
solicited  the  pope  to  raise  his  voice  in  behalf  of  labor ; 603  two 
years  later  ten  thousand  humble  pilgrims,  with  Cardinal  Lan- 
genieux  as  spokesman,  repeated  u  the  suppliant  cry  of  the 
apostles :  Domine,  salve  nos,  perimufi.  .  .  ."  and  begged  the 
head  of  the  Church  to  "  recall  the  world  to  respect  of  the  laws 
of  justice  and  right."  604 

In  1890  Professor  Francesco  Nitti,  a  prominent  Italian 
economist  (who  became  premier  of  Italy  during  the  great  war), 
published  his  stimulating  book  on  Catholic  Socialism.60* 
National  and  international  Catholic  congresses  were  discussing 
the  labor  problem.  A  flood  of  books,  pamphlets  and  reviews 
dealt  with  the  attitude  of  the  Church  towards  labor.  Well 
might  Leo  XIII  conclude  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  official 
proclamation  of  the  Catholic  social  doctrine. 

Viewed  in  the  light  of  the  antecedent  events,  just  recounted, 
Leo  XIII's  Encyclical  Letter  (Rerum  Novarum,  15  May,  1891) 
on  the  Condition  of  the  Working  Classes  (De  Conditione  opifi- 
cum)  606  will  appear  less  original,  less  revolutionary,  perhaps, 
than  it  has  sometimes  been  represented,607  but  not  less  signifi- 
cant. The  pope  did  not  revolutionize  the  Catholic  attitude  to- 
ward social  questions ;  he  did  not  originate  a  new  social  philos- 
ophy; he  merely  confirmed  a  body  of  doctrine  which  had  been 
gradually  developed  by  the  application  of  ancient  Christian 
principles  to  modern  industrial  society.  The  significance  of 
Rerum  Novarum  lay  in  the  earnestness  with  which  it  (i) 
opposed  Economic  Liberalism  or  the  policy  of  laissez-faire 
which  permitted  the  masses  to  be  ruthlessly  exploited,  (2)  re- 
pudiated socialism  as  a  false  remedy,  (3)  encouraged  Social 
Catholicism  as  a  true  remedy,  and  (4)  stated  definite  principles 
for  a  program  of  social  reform.608 

( i )  Emphatically  the  Encyclical  declared,  "  there  can  be 
no  question  whatever,  that  some  remedy  must  be  found,  and 
found  quickly,  for  the  misery  and  wretchedness  pressing  so 
heavily  and  so  unjustly  at  this  moment  on  the  vast  majority 
of  the  working  classes."  609  The  chief  causes  of  the  evil  were 
Economic  Liberalism,  irreligion,  and  avarice. 


160  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

The  ancient  workmen's  guilds  were  destroyed  in  the  last  century 
and  no  other  organization  took  their  place.  Public  institutions  and 
laws  have  repudiated  the  ancient  religion.  Hence  by  degrees  it 
has  come  to  pass  that  workingmen  have  been  given  over,  isolated 
and  defenceless,  to  the  callousness  of  employers  and  the  greed  of 
unrestrained  competition.  The  evil  has  been  increased  by  rapacious 
Usury, —  still  practiced  by  avaricious  and  grasping  men  ...  A  small 
number  of  very  rich  men  have  been  able  to  lay  upon  the  masses 
of  the  poor  a  yoke  little  better  than  slavery  itself.610 

Von  Ketteler,  Villeneuve-Bargemont,  Ozanam,  de  Mun, 
might  have  used  the  same  words. 

(2)  "To  remedy  these  evils,"  the  Encyclical  continued,  "  the 
Socialists,  working  on  the  poor  men's  envy  of  the  rich,  en- 
deavor to  destroy  private  property,  and  maintain  that  individual 
possessions  should  become  the  common  property  of  all,  to  be 
administered  by  the  State  or  by  municipal  bodies."  611  This 
communistic  ideal,  Leo  XIII  contended,  was  "  so  clearly  futile 
for  all  practical  purposes  "  that  if  it  were  carried  out  "  the 
workingmen  would  be  among  the  first  to  suffer."  Further- 
more, communism  was  "  emphatically  unjust "  and  "  must  be 
utterly  rejected"  because  it  denied  the  natural  right  of  private 
property.  The  Socialists  were  also  condemned  for  justifying 
State  interference  with  family  life,  and  for  preaching  "  the  idea 
that  class  is  naturally  hostile  to  class,  and  that  rich  and  poor 
are  intended  by  nature  to  live  at  war  with  one  another."  It 
should  be  noted  that  the  Encyclical  in  condemning  "  Socialism," 
did  not  in  any  sense  condemn  either  governmental  or  trade- 
union  ownership  of  public  utilities,  railways,  factories,  mines, 
etc.;  it  condemned  only  the  extreme  collectivism  which  would 
prevent  private  ownership  of  land,  the  saving  of  wages,  and 
the  accumulation  by  the  laborer  of  a  reserve  fund  or  patrimony 
of  "  profitable  property "  sufficient  to  keep  his  family  from 
"  want  and  misery."  In  truth,  the  argument  about  private 
property,  while  it  was  frankly  directed  against  "  Socialism  "  or 
complete  communism,  implicitly  condemned  landlordism  even 
more  emphatically  than  Socialism :  "  When  man  .  .  .  spends 
the  industry  of  his  mind  and  the  strength  of  his  body  procuring 
the  fruits  of  nature,  by  that  act  he  makes  his  own  that  portion 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  l6l 

of  nature's  field  which  he  cultivates  .  .  .  and  it  cannot  but  be 
just  that  he  should  possess  that  portion  as  his  own.  .  .  ."  612 

(3)  Only  a  few  pages  of  the  Encyclical  were  written  in 
refutation  of  Socialism;  the  pope  was  more  concerned  with 
enunciating  the  Catholic  principles  of  social  reform.613  True 
social  reform,  he  maintained,  must  avail  itself  of  the  combined 
efforts  of  three  agencies,  the  Church,  the  State,  and  the  labor 
organization.  The  Church  "  does  its  best  to  enlist  the  services 
of  all  ranks  in  discussing  and  endeavoring  to  meet,  in  the  most 
practical  way,  the  claims  of  the  working  classes."  The  Church 
warns  the  rich  that  "  it  is  shameful  and  inhuman  to  treat  men 
like  chattels  to  make  money  by  " ;  that  "  to  make  one's  profit 
out  of  the  need  of  another,  is  condemned  by  all  laws,  human 
and  divine  " ;  that  "  to  defraud  any  one  of  wages  that  are  his 
due  is  a  crime  which  cries  to  the  avenging  anger  of  Heaven  " ; 
and  that  in  the  words  of  Aquinas,  "  Man  should  not  consider 
his  outward  possessions  as  his  own,  but  as  common  to  all,  so 
as  to  share  them  without  difficulty  when  others  are  in  need." 
On  the  other  hand,  the  poor  are  taught  by  the  Church  to  work 
honestly,  to  cultivate  virtue,  and  "  never  to  employ  violence  .  .  . 
nor  to  engage  in  riot  and  disorder."  It  is  the  Church  which 
has  ever  exalted  the  dignity  of  labor.  No  "  practical  solution  " 
of  the  labor  problem  could  ever  be  found,  without  recourse  to 
religion,  which  teaches  men  not  merely  to  be  just,  but  to  culti- 
vate "  that  true  Christian  Charity,"  —  "  the  mistress  and  queen 
of  virtues," —  which  is  always  "  ready  to  sacrifice  itself  for 
others'  sake,  and  which  is  man's  surest  antidote  against  worldly 
pride  and  immoderate  love  of  self."  614 

The  second  agency  of  reform,  the  State,  "  must  duly  and 
solicitously  provide  for  the  welfare  and  the  comfort  of  the 
working  people  " ;  it  must  protect  private  property ;  it  should 
restrain  revolutionary  agitators;  it  must  prevent  disturbance 
of  the  public  peace  by  violence  arising  from  strikes ;  and  it  must 
intervene  in  case  employers  laid  unjust  burdens  upon  the  work- 
men, or  degraded  them  with  conditions  that  were  "  repugnant 
to  their  dignity  as  human  beings."  615  "  The  more  that  is  done 
for  the  working  population  by  the  general  laws  of  the  country, 


162  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

the  less  need  will  there  be  to  seek  for  particular  means  to  relieve 
them."  616 

As  to  the  third  instrument  of  reform,  namely,  labor  organ- 
ization, the  Encyclical  was  very  insistent.  The  formation  of 
associations,  that  is,  guilds  or  unions,  in  the  various  trades 
was  a  reform  of  capital  importance,  deserving  the  whole-souled 
support  of  Catholics.  But  while  strongly  encouraging  the 
guild  or  trade-union  idea  in  principle,  Leo  XIII  carefully 
avoided  any  too  dogmatic  pronouncement  regarding  the  exact 
form  which  the  guild  or  union  should  take.  A  more  precise 
definition  of  the  ideal  guild  might  have  been  useful  at  the 
time,  but  it  would  have  fettered  the  future.  Leo  XIII,  for- 
tunately for  the  Social  Catholic  Movement,  had  the  wisdom 
to  phrase  his  endorsement  of  the  guild  or  union  idea  in  com- 
prehensive terms.  "  We  do  not  deem  it  possible,"  he  said, 
"to  enter  into  definite  details  on  the  subject  of  organization; 
this  must  depend  on  national  character,  on  practice  and  experi- 
ence, on  the  nature  and  scope  of  the  work  to  be  done,  on  the 
magnitude  of  the  various  trades  and  employments,  and  on  other 
circumstances  of  fact  and  time  —  all  of  which  must  be  care- 
fully weighed."  Hence  the  pope  took  sides  neither  with  those 
>4iq  advocated  "  mixed  unions  "  of  employers  and  workingmen 
nor  witH  those  who  insisted  on  separate  unions,  or,  rather,  he 
approved  both.  Whether  composed  of  workingmen  alone  or  of 
workingmen  and  employers  together,  trade  unions  were  to  be 
commended.  Preferably,  Christians  should  form  their  own 
unions,  in  order  that  they  might  not  be  exposed  to  irreligious 
influences.  Among  the  purposes  to  which  the  trade  unions  or 
modernized  guilds  might  well  devote  their  efforts,  he  mentioned 
insurance  against  sickness,  accident,  old  age,  and  misfortune, 
and  the  provision  of  a  continuous  supply  of  work.  They 
should  strive  to  "  infuse  the  spirit  of  justice  into  the  mutual 
relations  of  employer  and  employed."  In  case  either  a  master 
or  a  workman  deemed  his  rights  injured,  "  nothing  would  be 
more  desirable  than  that  there  should  be  a  committee  composed 
of  honest  and  capable  men  of  the  Association  itself,  whose  duty 
it  should  be,  by  the  laws  of  the  Association,  to  decide  the 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION 


163 


dispute,"  —  in  short,  industrial  arbitration  was  recommended. 

The  state,  said  Leo  XIII,  instead  of  legally  prohibiting  such 
workmen's  associations,  as  had  been  done  in  many  countries 
during  the  nineteenth  century,  should  "  watch  over  them  "  and 
respect  the  right  of  association.  The  government  should  not 
"  thrust  itself  into  their  peculiar  concerns  and  organization,  for 
things  move  and  live  by  the  soul  within  them,  and  they  may  be 
killed  by  the  grasp  of  a  hand  from  without."  The  unions 
should  not  only  be  free  to  exist,  but  "  to  adopt  such  rules  and 
organization  as  may  best  conduce  to  the  attainment  of  their 
objects."  617 

(4)  Finally,  the  program  of  immediate  reforms  to  be  striven 
for,  as  laid  down  by  Leo  XIII  in  the  Encyclical  Rerum  No- 
varum,618  is  decidedly  interesting,  especially  if  compared  on 
one  hand  with  Count  Albert  de  Mun's  program  and  on  the  other 
hand  with  the  laws  actually  passed  by  the  Third  French  Re- 
public in  subsequent  years.  To  facilitate  such  a  comparison, 
the  three  schedules  are  set  down  in  parallel  columns : 

COMPARATIVE  TABLE 


REFORMS      PROPOSED      BY 

PARALLEL  PROPOSALS  MADE 

L  A  w  s      ACCOMPLISHING 

LEO     XIII     IN     THE 

BY  COUNT  ALBERT 

THESE  REFORMS  COM- 

YEAR  1891 

DE  MUN 

PLETELY  OR  IN  PART 

(a)   Trade    unions    and 

Speeches  of  1872,  1876, 

Incomplete    legalization 

joint  associations  of  capi- 

1879,   1882,     1883,     1884, 

of  trade  unions  with   re- 

tal   and    labor    should    be 

etc.     Same    principle. 

stricted  rights  by  law  of 

permitted  and  promoted. 

Specific   applications. 

March   21,    1884;    °^   mu~ 

tual    aid    societies,    April 

i,    1898.     Right    of    gov- 

ernment     employees      to 

form  trade  unions  not  le- 

gally   recognized.     Trade 

unions   still    restricted   as 

regards  property  rights. 

(b)      Minimum      wage. 

Advocated   mini- 

Wages  must   be    at   least 

mum   wage   legislation    in 

sufficient  "  to  support  the 

interview     with      English 

wage-earner  in  reasonable 

journalist,      Oct.,       1889. 

and  frugal  comfort";  the 

Presented  bill  to  prepare 

minimum   to  be   adjusted 

data  for  such  legislation, 

in    each    trade   by   indus- 

Dec.    7,     1889.     Bill     for 

trial    organizations    (pre- 

minimum wage  in  sweated 

sumably  representing  cap- 

industries, April  2,   1909. 

ital  and  labor),  with  the 

sanction    and    support    of 

the  law. 

(c)     Social     Insurance, 

Same      idea.     Program 

For  miners  only,  by  law 

i.  e.,  provision  against  ac- 

for  Catholic   party,    1885. 

of  June   29,    1894.     Acci- 

cident, old  age,  and  sick- 

Sickness,   Insurance,    and 

dent      compensation      for 

ness,  to  be   instituted  by 

Old    Age    Pensions    Bill, 

industrial   workers,   April 

trade  organizations. 

1886.     Accident    Insur- 

9,    1898:    for   agricultural 

164 


THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 


REFORMS      PROPOSED      BY 

LEO     XIII     IN     THE 

YEAR   1891 


(d)  U  n  e  m  p  1  o  y- 
m  e  n  t.     Labor    organiza- 
tions to  "  try  to  arrange 
for    a    continuous    supply 
of  work." 

(e)  Sanitation, 
hygiene,     and     safety     in 
factories,  workshops,  etc., 
to    be    secured    by    regu- 
lations of  trade  organiza- 
tions, with  "  approval  and 
protection  "  of  the  State. 


(f)  Arbitration  and 
conciliation  to  be  provided 
for  under  the  law. 


(g)  Restriction 
of  hours  of  labor.  "  It 
is  neither  justice  nor  hu- 
manity so  to  grind  men 
down  with  excessive  labor 
as  to  stupefy  their  minds 
and  wear  out  their 
bodies."  "  Daily  labor, 
therefore,  must  be  so 
regulated  that  it  may  not 
be  protracted  during 
longer  hours  than 
strength  admits."  "Prop- 
er rest  for  soul  and 
body  "  must  be  allowed. 


PARALLEL  PROPOSALS  MADE 

BY  COUNT  ALBERT 

DE  MUN 


ance   Bill,    1886. 


Same     idea.     Bill     pre- 
sented in   1906. 


Same     idea.     Bill     pre- 
sented in   1906. 


Bills  presented  in   1887 
and    1889. 


Bill  presented  in  1889 
for  58-hour  week  for 
adults,  men  as  well  as 
women.  Eight-hour  day 
advocated  in  interview 
with  English  journalist  in 
Oct.,  1880 


LAWS      ACCOMPLISHING 
THESE  REFORMS  COM- 
PLETELY OR  IN  PART 


workers,  June  39,  1899; 
for  commercial  em- 
ployees, April  12,  1906. 
Old  age  and  infirmity 
assistance  (5  to  20  fr. 
per  diem),  law  of  July 
14.  1905.  Obligatory  in- 
surance against  old  age 
and  premature  'infirmity, 
by  laws  of  April  5,  1910, 
and  Feb.  27,  1912.  Sick- 
ness insurance  for  sailors 
by  laws  of  Dec.  29,  1905 
and  July  14,  1908;  for 
railway  workers,  July  21, 
1909,  and  Dec.  28,  1911; 
voluntary  sickness  insur- 
ance for  others. 

Law  of  March  17,  1904, 
requiring  all  communes 
of  over  10,000  inhabitants 
to  maintain  employment 
bureaus. 

Law  of  June  12,  1893, 
prescribing  regula- 
t  i  o  n  s  for  industrial 
plants.  Regula- 
tions  drafted  and  en- 
forced by  the  State.  Ex- 
tended to  commercial  es- 
tablishments, July  ii, 
1903. 

Law  of  Dec.  27,  1892, 
providing  for  voluntary 
arbitration  and  concilia- 
tion by  special,  non-per- 
manent boards.  Decree 
of  Sept  17,  1900,  and 
law  of  July  17,  1908, 
establishing  trade  boards. 

Law  of  March  22,  1841, 
eight-hour  day  for  chil- 
dren under  12  yrs.  and 
twelve-hour  day  for  chil- 
dren under  16.  Decree 
of  March  2,  1848,  ten- 
hour  day  in  Paris,  eleven 
in  provinces.  Law  of 
Sept.  9,  1848,  twelve- 
hour  day  in  industry. 

Law  of  Feb.  22,  1851, 
ten-hour  day  for  appren- 
tices under  14  yrs.; 
twelve-hour  day  for  those 
between  14  and  16.  Law 
of  May  19,  1874,  six- 
hour  day  for  children 
under  12  yrs.  and  twelve- 
hour  day  for  young  per- 
sons. 

Law  of  Nov.  2,  1892, 
ten-hour  day  for  children 
under  16;  eleven-hour 
day  for  adolescents  (16 
to  1 8)  and  for  women. 

Law  of  March  30,  1900, 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION 


REFORMS      PROPOSED      BY 

LEO     XIII     IN     THE 

YEAR  1891 


(h)  "  Sundays  and  cer- 
tain festivals  "  must  be 
observed  as  holidays. 


(i)  Child-labor.  Chil- 
dren must  not  be  em- 
ployed "  in  workshops 
and  factories  until  their 
bodies  and  minds  are 
sufficiently  mature." 


(j)  Women,  should  be 
excluded  from  certain 
trades. 


(k)  Small  holdings. 
The  law  should  encour- 
age workingmen  to  ac- 
quire land.  A  large  class 
of  small  land-owners  will 
cement  social  solidarity, 
augment  production,  and 
check  emigration. 


PARALLEL  PROPOSALS  MADE 

BY  COUNT  ALBERT 

DE  MUN 


Bills  presented  in   1886 
and    1889. 


Bill  presented  in  1889 
for  exclusion  of  children 
under  13  years,  and  re- 
quirement of  medical  cer- 
tificate for  children  un- 
der 1 6. 


Bill  presented  in  1889 
excluding  women  from 
mines  and  unhealthful 
trades. 

Similar  ideas  expressed 
in  speech  at  Saint- 
Etienne,  1892,  and  on 
other  occasions. 


LAWS      ACCOMPLISHING 
THESE  REFORMS  COM- 
PLETELY OR  IN  PART 


eleven-hour  day  (reduced 
to  ioj4  hours  in  1902 
and  10  in  1904)  for  chil- 
dren under  16,  women, 
and  men  employed  in 
same  factories. 

Law  of  June  29,  1903, 
eight-hour  day  for  miners. 

Law  of  April  25,  1919, 
eight-hour  day  for  in- 
dustry generally. 

Law  of  Nov.  18,  1814 
(poorly  enforced,  abro- 
gated in  1880),  general 
rule  for  observation  of 
Sundays  and  feast-days. 

Law  of  March  22,  1841, 
Sunday  holiday  for  chil- 
dren in  factories. 

Law  of  Feb.  22,  1851, 
for  apprentices. 

Law  of  May  19,  1874, 
for  children. 

Law  of  Nov.  2,  1892, 
one  day  rest  weekly  for 
minors  and  women. 

Law  of  July  13,  1906, 
general  Sunday  holiday 
in  industry  and  com- 
merce, subject  to  impor- 
tant exceptions. 

Law  of  March  22,  1841, 
excluding  children  under 
8  yrs.  from  factories. 

Law_  of  May  19,  1874, 
excluding  children  under 

12  years,   or    10   for   cer- 
tain industries. 

Law  of  Nov.  2,  1802, 
excluding  children  under 

13  years,      unless     they 
have     a     primary     school 
diploma  and   are  at  least 
12      years      old.     Applies 
only  to  industry,  and  cer- 
tain other  employments. 

Law  of  May  19,  1874, 
excluding  women  from 
subterranean  work  in 
mines  and  quarries. 

Laws  of  April  12,  1906, 
April  10,  1908,  Dec.  23, 
1912,  facilitating  acquisi- 
tion of  homes  and  garden 
plots. 


166  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

THE  POLITICAL  INTERVENTION  OF  LEO  XIII :  THE 
"  RALLIEMENT  " 

Within  less  than  a  year  after  the  promulgation  of  Rerum 
Novarum,  Leo  XIII  issued  his  famous  "  Letter  to  the  Arch- 
bishops, the  Bishops,  the  Clergy,  and  all  the  Catholics  of 
France,"  February  16,  1892.  In  the  Encyclical  of  1891  he 
had  given  the  Social  Catholics  of  all  nations  an  authoritative 
charter  of  social  reform;  in  the  Letter  of  1892  he  gave  to 
French  Catholics  a  program  of  political  action. 

Before  the  Letter  of  1892,  the  acceptance  of  the  Republic 
by  the  French  Catholics  had  been  often  suggested,  and  even 
begun.  Count  Albert  de  Mun  as  early  as  1885  had  proposed 
to  subordinate  constitutional  to  religious  questions  and  had  at- 
tempted —  unsuccessfully  —  to  form  a  Catholic  party.619 
After  the  Boulangist  fiasco  in  1889  he  refused  to  enter  the 
royalist  group.620  In  1886  Raoul  Duval  had  addressed  to  the 
monarchist  Right  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  the  sensational 
rebuke :  "  It  is  a  policy  of  fetishism  to  wish  to  condemn  the 
country  to  misery  until  the  day  when  it  will  accept  the  form 
of  government  which  you  wish  to  impose."  621  An  even  more 
scathing  criticism  of  the  monarchist  policy,  and  a  remarkable 
exhortation  to  accept  the  Republic,  appeared  in  the  Nouvelle 
Revue,  December  I,  1888,  over  the  signature  of  a  prominent 
Conservative,  the  Marquis  de  Castellane,  two  of  whose  sons 
subsequently  figured  as  Republicans  in  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties.622 

Shortly  after  the  general  election  of  1889,  a  practical  but  not 
a  very  fruitful  attempt  to  form  a  "  constitutional "  group  of 
converted  monarchists  was  made  by  M.  Jacques  Piou,  a  bour- 
geois lawyer  and  politician  of  Toulouse,  who  had  been  elected 
to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  as  a  Conservative  Orleanist  in  1885 
and  again  in  1889.  Piou's  small  parliamentary  group,  though 
bitterly  attacked  by  monarchists,  stubbornly  struggled  along.623 
The  leader  himself,  in  an  interview  with  the  editor  of  the 
Soleil,  declared  that  the  conservatives  could  never  really  dispute 
power  with  the  Radicals  unless  "  the  battle  is  no  longer  waged, 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  167 

either  overtly  or  covertly,  against  the  form  of  government,  but 
only  against  the  manner  of  governing."  "  I  am  convinced," 
he  said,  "  that  .the  conservative  party,  reconstituted  on  this 
basis,  and  augmented  by  the  adhesion  of  elements  today  sepa- 
rated from  it,  would  reconquer  the  majority  in  the  country  and 
would  gain  legal  and  peaceful  possession  of  power."  624 

In  its  program  as  published  in  the  Figaro,  March  30,  1890, 
M.  Piou's  group  of  the  "  Independent  or  Constitutional  Right  " 
firmly  took  its  stand  on  the  solid  Republican  platform  of 
"  respect  for  the  national  will  and  recognition  of  the  rights  of 
universal  suffrage."  Renouncing  once  and  for  all  the  idea 
of  revolution  against  the  Republic,  the  Constitutional  Right 
would  strive  to  build  up  a  parliamentary  majority  favorable 
to  freedom  for  Catholic  worship  and  Catholic  schools,  patriot- 
ism, financial  retrenchment,  and  simplification  of  administra- 
tive machinery.  One  phrase  of  this  program  contains  the 
promise  of  social  reform,  though  vaguely : — 

"  Constant  study  of  labor  questions,  so  as  to  afford  the  full  pro- 
tection of  the  law  to  the  workingmen  and  the  weak."  625 

No  list  of  members  was  published.  Perhaps  it  would  have 
been  too  short! 

The  tendency  of  men  like  de  Mun,  de  Castellane,  and  Piou, 
to  abandon  Monarchism  was  significant  as  an  indication  that  a 
few  Catholics  were  beginning  to  discern  the  unpleasant  truth 
that  alliance  with  Monarchism  was  not  only  futile,  but  was 
bidding  fair  to  become  fatal. 

By  attacking  the  Republic,  the  clericals  had  simply  afforded 
the  Republicans  amjple  justification  for  anticlericalism.  In 
particular  the  most  recent  episode  of  the  Monarchist  campaign 
—  the  Boulanger  affair  —  had  borne  bitter  fruit  in  a  law  re- 
quiring ecclesiastical  students  to  perform  one  year  of  military 
service  626  and  in  a  crushing  electoral  defeat  (1889)  for  clericals 
and  Monarchists.627 

The  political  sagacity  of  a  M.  Piou  was  reinforced  by  the 
enthusiasm  of  a  Cardinal  Lavigerie.628  As  the  ardent  director 
of  Roman  Catholic  missionary  enterprise  in  northern  Africa, 


168  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Cardinal  Lavigerie  learned  to  look  to  the  Republic  for  protec- 
tion and  to  regret  ithe  factional  dissensions  which  prevented 
the  Catholics  of  France  from  transforming  the  Republic  into 
an  even  more  powerful  instrument  for  the  advancement  of 
Christianity  and  civilization.  At  a  banquet  in  honor  of  the 
officers  of  the  French  squadron,  at  Algiers,  November  12,  1890, 
Cardinal  Lavigerie  startled  France  by  making  the  toast : 

Please  God  .  .  .  that  the  union  which  is  now  manifest  among  us 
.  .  .  may  soon  reign  among  all  the  sons  of  our  mother-country!  .  .  . 
When  the  will  of  a  people  has  clearly  declared  itself ;  when  the 
form  of  a  government  in  itself  is  in  no  way  contrary  —  as  Leo 
XIII  recently  proclaimed629  —  to  the  principles  which  alone  give  life 
[peuvent  faire  vivre]  to  Christian  and  civilized  nations ;  when  in 
order  to  rescue  one's  country  from  the  abyss  which  threatens  it 
there  is  nothing  else  to  do  but  to  give  unreserved  adhesion  to  the 
form  of  government;  the  moment  arrives  to  declare  at  last  that  the 
trial  has  been  concluded  and,  in  order  to  put  an  end  to  our  dissen- 
sions, to  sacrifice  all  that  conscience  and  honor  permit,  nay  command 
each  of  us  to  sacrifice  for  the  welfare  of  the  country.630 

The  "  toast  of  Algiers  "  stirred  up  a  tempest  in  France.631 
The  Marquis  de  1'Angle-Baumanoir  urged  the  Senate  to  sup- 
press the  stipend  of  Cardinal  Lavigerie  632 ;  Paul  de  Cassagnac 
inveighed  against  the  Cardinal  with  amazing  asperity;633  Mgr. 
Freppel,  writing  in  the  Anjou,  strenuously  upheld  the  clerico- 
monarchist  coalition  and  denied  that  the  Republic  was  accept- 
able to  Catholics.634 

At  the  opposite  extreme,  a  number  of  young  and  enthusiastic 
journalist-priests,  notably  Abbe  Dabry,  Abbe  Fesch,  Abbe 
Gamier,  Abbe  Naudet,  Abbe  Lemire,  and  Abbe  Gayraud, 
seemed  to  be  quite  as  belligerent  and  as  uncompromising  as  the 
monarchists.  Just  as  the  monarchists  insisted  upon  identifying 
the  cause  of  the  altar  with  the  cause  of  the  throne,  so  these 
"  Christian  Democrats  "  wished  to  link  Christianity  with  thor- 
oughgoing political  and  social  democracy.635 

Men  of  moderate  temper  found  it  difficult  to  discover  a 
middle  course.  They  could  no  longer  make  restoration  of 
monarchy  the  central  feature  of  their  political  program  nor 
could  they,  on  the  other  hand,  instantly  transfer  their  affections 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  169 

to  democracy.  A  Catholic  party,  more  or  less  neutral  as  re- 
gards the  form  of  government,  seemed  to  be  the  most  promis- 
ing escape  from  the  dilemma. 

The  "  Constitutional  Right "  recently  founded  by  Jacques 
Piou  was  such  a  party.  It  required  its  members  merely  to 
acquiesce  in  the  existing  constitution,  but  not  necessarily  to 
believe  in  republicanism.  Much  encouraged  by  Cardinal 
Lavigerie's  famous  Toast,  and  by  an  interview  with  the  pope 
(February  2,  1891),  Piou  worked  energetically  to  strengthen 
his  party,  despite  the  attacks  which  the  monarchists  made  upon 
his  policy.636 

Cardinal  Richard,  Archbishop  of  Paris,  conceived  a  more 
ambitious  idea.  A  great  Catholic  union  (L*  Union  de  la  France 
Chretienne)  was  to  be  formed  for  the  defense  of  religious 
interests,  without  regard  to  political  opinions.  Whether  they 
were  royalists  or  republicans,  all  who  wished  to  defend  the 
liberty  of  the  Church  would  be  welcomed  as  adherents.  The 
great  difficulty  was  to  select  a  committee  to  lead  the  forces  of 
the  Union.  If  the  committee  was  dominated  by  republicans, 
the  monarchists  would  be  estranged ;  if  by  monarchists,  the 
Union  would  appear  to  be  nothing  more  than  a  royalist  move- 
ment. After  much  negotiation,  a  "  Committee  of  Religious 
Defense  "  was  finally  constituted,  including  as  members  some  of 
the  most  prominent  Catholic  politicians  and  publicists.  Ches- 
nelong  was  president ;  Keller,  Baron  de  Mackau,  Albert  de  Mun, 
and  d'Herbelot  were  vice-presidents;  and  editors  of  L'Univers, 
La  Croix,  Le  Monde,  and  La  Defense,  were  among  the  mem- 
bers. In  its  statement  of  policy,  June  19,  1891,  the  committee 
declared,  "...  We  ask  the  help  of  the  Christians  and  of  all 
fair-minded  men,  whatever  their  political  opinions,  for  the 
purpose  of  defending  and  claiming  by  common  accord  the  civil, 
social  and  religious  liberties  of  which  they  are  de- 
spoiled. .  .  ."637 

About  the  same  time,  the  Bishop  of  Grenoble,  Mgr.  Fava, 
attempted  to  establish  a  "  Catholic  Party  "  of  sectarian  char- 
acter and  anti-masonic  tendency.638  More  significant  was  the 
"  Association  catholique  frangaise  "  organized  in  1891  by  Jules 


170  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Bonjean  to  merge  the  endeavors  of  Catholics,  forgetful  of 
political  and  partisan  controversies,  in  an  ardent  campaign  to 
carry  out  the  "  religious  and  social  doctrines  "  of  Rerum  No- 
varum  and  to  secure  "  the  physical  and  moral  amelioration  of 
all  those  who  suffer  in  body  or  in  soul."  639  It  is  interesting 
to  remark  that  de  Mun  soon  transferred  his  support  from  the 
Union  de  la  France  Chretienne  to  the  Association  catholique 
frangaise?™ 

The  Catholic  secession  from  monarchism  became  ever  more 
pronounced  during  the  year  1891.  Journals  propagated  the 
new  policy.  Severin  Icard  formulated  the  slogan,  "  Cath- 
oliques  et  republicans,  rallion s-nous!"  641  A  Dominican  theo- 
logian, Pere  Maumus,  justified  the  ralliement  in  a  convincing 
pamphlet  entitled  La  Republique  et  la  politique  de  I'Eglise.*42 
Gaston  David  inaugurated  a  lively  campaign,  in  the  name  of  the 
Ligue  populaire,  to  federate  all  existing  groups  "  for  the  de- 
fense of  political,  social,  and  religious  liberties."  643 

Such  was  the  chaotic  situation  in  France  when  Leo  XIII  at 
length  decided  to  intervene.644  On  February  16,  1892,  he 
issued  the  Letter  "  to  the  Archbishops,  the  Bishops,  the  Clergy, 
and  all  the  Catholics  of  France."  645  Four  features  of  the  let- 
ter should  be  noticed.  ( i )  All  Catholics  as  good  citizens  must 
render  obedience  to  the  Republic,  and  refrain  from  conspiracies 
to  overthrow  the  government  by  force, —  "  all  the  more  so,  be- 
cause insurrection  stirs  up  hatred  among  citizens,  provokes 
civil  war,  and  may  throw  the  nation  back  into  the  chaos  of 
anarchy."  (2)  The  main  purpose  of  the  letter  was  obviously 
to  induce  the  Catholics  of  France  to  cease  their  ruinous  fac- 
tional strife  and  to  make  common  cause  in  defense  of  religion 
and  country.  "  Far  from  them  [the  Catholics]  be  these  polit- 
ical dissensions  which  divide  them;  all  their  efforts  should  be 
combined  to  conserve  or  restore  the  moral  greatness  of  their 
country."  In  other  words,  the  way  to  protect  the  Church 
against  "  the  vast  conspiracy  which  certain  men  have  formed 
for  the  annihilation  of  Christianity  in  France,"  was  not  to 
strive  for  the  overthrow  of  the  Republic,  but  unitedly  to  de- 
mand liberty  and  justice  and  "  the  inalienable  rights  of  the 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  171 

Catholic  Church,"  under  the  Republic.  (3)  The  privileged 
position  of  the  Church  under  the  Concordat  must  be  main- 
tained, and  separation  of  church  and  state  opposed.  (4)  In 
the  realm  of  "  speculative  ideas,"  Catholics,  "  as  all  other 
citizens,  have  full  liberty  to  prefer  one  form  of  government 
to  another."  Neither  Monarchism,  nor  Republicanism,  nor 
Democracy  was  condemned  in  principle. 

The  Encyclical  of  February  16,  1892,  was  supplemented  by 
letters  to  six  refractory  cardinals  (May  3,  1892), 646  to  M.  Ches- 
nelong  (May  5,  1892)  ,647  and  to  Mgr.  Fava  (June  22,  1892). 6*8 
To  the  Cardinals,  the  pope  reiterated  his  assertion  that  the  Re- 
public must  be  accepted ;  he  urged  "  a  sincere  submission  "  and 
he  reproved  the  identification  of  religion  with  party : 

The  men  who  would  subordinate  everything  to  the  triumph  of  their 
particular  party,  even  under  the  pretext  that  it  appeared  to  them 
to  be  the  most  favorable  to  religious  defense,  would  by  that  very 
fact  be  convicted  of  placing,  in  effect,  by  a  ruinous  inversion  of 
ideas,  the  policy  which  divides  above  the  religion  which  unites. 
And  it  would  be  their  fault  if  our  enemies,  exploiting  their  divisions 
as  they  have  only  too  frequently  done,  should  finally  succeed  in 
crushing  them  all.649 

And  to  Mgr.  Fava,  advocate  of  a  sectarian  Catholic  Party, 
the  pope  explicitly  affirmed  the  advisability  of  cooperating 
politically  with  "  all  honorable  men,"  even  non-Catholics : 

While  holding  firm  in  the  affirmation  of  dogmas  and  refusing  all 
compromise  with  error,  it  is  Christian  prudence  not  to  repulse,  or 
rather  to  be  able  to  enlist,  the  help  of  all  honest  men  in  the  pursuit 
of  good,  whether  individual  or,  above  all.  social.650 

In  consequence  of  the  papal  instructions,  M.  Chesnelong's 
Union  de  la  France  Chretienne  and  Mgr.  Fava's  Catholic  party 
collapsed.651  The  main  purpose  of  papal  intervention  was,  it 
seemed,  to  discourage  both  the  tendency  to  make  Catholicism 
a  political  party  and  the  tendency  to  make  Catholicism  an 
annex  of  the  monarchist  party  or  of  any  other  party. 


172  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

IMMEDIATE  EFFECT  OF  THE  ENCYCLICALS 

Even  the  most  cursory  examination  of  the  political  and  re- 
ligious situation  in  France  during  the  last  decade  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  will  show  how  the  papal  encyclicals  of  1891 
and  1892  necessarily  had  the  effect  of  transferring  the  allegi- 
ance of  Social  Catholicism  in  France  from  the  ideal  monarchy 
to  the  actual  Republic,  and  at  the  same  time  of  intensifying  the 
factional  conflict  within  French  Catholicism  as  a  whole. 

For  a  variety  of  reasons,  the  most  ardent  Social  Catholics 
in  France,  monarchists  though  they  were  by  tradition,  were 
among  the  first  to  obey  the  papal  letter  recommending  accept- 
ance of  the  Republic.  In  the  first  place,  from  its  very  incep- 
tion, the  Social  Catholic  movement  had  been  unmistakably  ultra- 
montane. One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  "  Committee  for  the 
Establishment  of  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  " 652  had  been 
to  send  an  address  to  the  pope,  December  25,  iS/i.653  In  rec- 
ognition of  their  loyalty  to  the  papacy,  the  Catholic  Working- 
men's  Clubs  had  received  frequent  testimonials  of  papal 
favor.654  Moreover,  the  Social  Catholics  had  learned  to  look 
upon  Leo  XIII  as  the  special  protector  of  their  social  work. 
De  Mun  and  Harmel  had  been  cordially  received  on  their  pil- 
grimages to  Rome.  And  by  promulgating  the  encyclical  Rerum 
Novarum  the  supreme  pontiff  had  earned  their  unbounded  grati- 
tude. The  Count  de  Mun,  furthermore,  as  a  politician  and 
as  a  member  of  parliament,  had  discovered  to  his  own  dis- 
comfiture that  if  Social  Catholicism  hoped  ever  to  better  the 
condition  of  the  poor  and  to  win  the  confidence  and  support 
of  the  masses,  it  must  not  be  saddled  with  anti-republican  plots 
and  schemes.  Although  they  still  proclaimed  the  "  Counter- 
Revolution,"  the  Social  Catholics  were  in  general  concerned 
more  with  the  social  and  religious  than  with  the  political 
Counter-Revolution. 

Count  Albert  de  Mun's  acceptance  of  the  two  Encyclicals  was 
prompt  and  enthusiastic.  In  speeches  at  Grenoble  (May  23, 
1892)  and  Lille  (June  6,  1892)  he  announced  his  resolution 
"  henceforth  to  place  my  political  action  on  a  constitutional 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  173 

platform,  in  order  to  conform  my  attitude  to  the  directions  of 
the  Sovereign  Pontiff."  655  Still  more  emphatically,  in  a  notable 
speech  at  Saint-Etienne  on  December  18,  1892,  he  translated 
the  papal  preachments  into  a  definite  political,  religious,  and 
social  program.  Politically,  he  proclaimed  himself  a  "  rallie," 
i.  e.,  a  monarchist  who  accepted  the  Republic.  In  religious 
matters,  he  championed  the  interests  of  Roman  Catholicism 
without  reserve  or  hesitation.  His  social  program  is  important 
enough  to  reproduce  here  in  extenso : 

In  my  opinion,  our  demands  taken  altogether  should  tend  to  guar- 
antee to  the  people  the  enjoyment  of  their  essential  rights,  which 
are  not  recognized  by  the  individualist  regime :  —  legal  representa- 
tion of  the  people's  interests  and  needs,  instead  of  a  purely  numer- 
ical representation ;  preservation  of  the  home  and  of  family-life ; 
the  possibility  for  every  man  to  live  and  to  support  his  family  by 
the  product  of  his  labor,  with  a  guarantee  against  the  insecurity 
resulting  from  accidents,  sickness,  unemployment,  and  old  age ; 
insurance  against  unavoidable  destitution ;  opportunity  for  the  work- 
ingman  to  share  in  the  profits,  and  even,  by  cooperation,  in  the 
capital  of  the  enterprises  to  which  he  contributes  his  labor ;  finally, 
protection  against  the  profiteering  and  speculation  which  exhaust  the 
savings  of  the  people  and  condemn  the  people  to  indigence  while, 
in  the  words  of  the  Encyclical,  "  a  minority,  in  absolute  control  of 
industry  and  commerce,  diverts  the  flow  of  riches  and  draws  all  the 
sources  of  wealth  to  itself." 

Two  forces  should  cooperate  in  realizing  this  program :  profes- 
sional organization  and  legislation. 

Industrial  organisation,  for  which  we  demand  the  most  complete 
liberty,  will  furnish  the  means  to  ensure  the  public  representation 
of  labor  in  the  elected  assemblies  of  the  nation,  to  determine  the 
amount  of  a  just  wage  in  each  industrial  or  agricultural  profession, 
to  guarantee  indemnities  to  the  victims  of  accidents,  of  sickness,  or 
of  unemployment,  to  create  a  fund  for  old-age  pensions,  to  prevent 
conflicts  by  the  establishment  of  permanent  arbitration-boards,  to 
organize  on  the  guild  basis  the  relief  of  paupers,  and,  finally,  to 
establish  a  certain  collective  property  in  the  possession  of  the  work- 
ers, consistent  with,  and  without  infringement  of  individual  prop- 
erty. 

Legislation  will  protect  the  home  and  family  life  by  restricting 
the  employment  of  women  and  children,  by  prohibiting  night-work, 
by  limiting  the  working-day,  by  enforcing  the  Sunday  holiday,  and, 
as  far  as  agriculture  is  concerned,  by  safeguarding  [against  seizure 


174  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

for  debt]  the  crops  and  the  fields  of  the  farmer,  together  with  his 
indispensable  implements  and  stock. 

It  [legislation]  will  alleviate  the  burdens  of  laborer  and  peasant 
by  diminishing  and  reforming  the  taxes,  particularly  the  taxes  on 
necessities  of  life. 

It  will  encourage  profit-sharing,  the  establishment  of  cooperative 
societies  for  production,  and,  in  agricultural  districts,  farming-on- 
shares. 

Finally,  it  will  protect  the  wealth  of  the  nation,  popular  thrift,  and 
public  morale  by  laws  on  stock-jobbing,  on  gambling  and  the  opera- 
tions of  the  stock-exchange,  on  corporation  practices,  on  the  ex- 
clusion of  foreigners  from  the  exploitation  and  direction  of  great 
public  utilities,  on  the  interdiction  of  financial  speculation  on  the 
part  of  government-employees,  representatives  of  the  nation,  and 
public  authorities. 

Such  are  the  principal  articles  of  the  social  program  which  I 
advise  the  Catholics  to  adopt.  This  program  is  nothing  other 
than  the  application  of  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  Encyclical 
On  the  Condition  of  the  Working  Classes.656 

That  de  Mun's  Saint-Etienne  speech  correctly  interpreted  the 
practical  meaning  of  the  two  great  Encyclicals,  Leo  XIII  him- 
self testified  in  a  letter  to  de  Mun,  January  7,  1893.  "  The 
perusal  of  your  speech,"  he  wrote,  "  was  supremely  agreeable. 
While  We  are  pleased  to  bestow  upon  you  the  praise  which  you 
justly  merit,  We  exhort  you  to  pursue  your  generous  enterprise. 
May  there  arise  men  who,  with  a  devotion  such  as  yours,  and 
a  large  breadth  of  vision,  will  consecrate  themselves  entirely 
to  the  resurrection  of  France."  657 

Many  Catholics  there  were  who  would  have  gone  further 
than  de  Mun,  both  in  democracy  and  in  social  reform.  The 
enthusiastic  group  of  Republican  priests  already  alluded  to, — 
especially  the  Abbes  Gayraud,  Dabry,  Gamier,  and  Fesah, — 
were  no  less  radical  in  their  demands  that  the  clergy  care  for 
the  material  welfare  of  the  people  than  in  their  conviction  that 
of  all  political  systems  democracy  was  the  best  suited  to  modern 
needs  and  to  Christian  principles.  In  the  early  'nineties  these 
so-called  Christian  Democrats  (democrates  chretiens)  formed 
the  extreme  radical  wing  of  republican  Catholicism  in  France. 
Leon  Harmel,  it  may  be  remarked,  was  at  that  time  a  personal 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  175 

link  between  the  Social  Catholic  group  of  de  Mun  and  the 
Christian  Democrats;  he  was  president  of  the  Association  of 
Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  (1895)  and  at  the  same  time 
chief  of  the  Christian  Democrats.658 

Christian  Democrats  and  moderate  rallies  alike  found  their 
most  bitter  enemies  in  the  intransigent  monarchists.  The  En- 
cyclical of  1892  had  not  made  an  end  of  organized  monarchism 
in  France.  The  aristocratic  families  which  constituted  the 
backbone  of  monarchism  had  for  centuries  been  subservient 
to  the  French  monarchy  in  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  in  political 
matters;  thanks  to  the  royal  right  of  appointing  bishops  and 
abbots  they  had  enjoyed  almost  a  monopoly  of  the  higher  offices 
in  the  French  hierarchy ;  and  they  had  pretty  consistently  sup- 
ported the  king's  endeavors  to  make  the  Gallican  Church  to 
a  large  degree  independent  of  the  Roman  pontiff.659  As  aristo- 
crats, therefore,  they  resented  the  too  popular  trend  of  Social 
Catholicism  and  of  Christian  Democracy  in  social  and  political 
matters ;  as  monarchists  they  insisted  that  all  good  Catholics 
must  of  necessity  desire  an  end  of  the  anticlerical  Republic 
and  a  restoration  of  Christian  royalty;  as  Gallicans  they  were 
inclined  to  ignore  or  to  minimize  the  papal  Encyclicals  of  1891 
and  i892.660  And  since  the  ultramontane  rallies  and  the  Chris- 
tian Democrats  were  insisting  upon  both  Encyclicals,  it  was 
natural  for  Gallican  monarchists  to  minimize  both.  It  may 
be  remarked  in  passing  that  the  incorrigible  monarchists  who 
subsequently  supported  the  Action  franqaise 661  remained  as 
disobedient  to  the  social  injunctions  of  Rerum  Novarum  as  to 
the  political  advice  of  the  Letter  of  i892.662  At  the  same  time, 
they  posed  as  the  most  extreme  champions  not  merely  of  the 
liberty  but  of  ithe  traditional  privileges  of  the  Catholic  Church 
in  France.663 

A  very  interesting  illustration  of  the  tactics  of  the  anti- 
republican  clerical  conservatives  may  be  found  in  the 
manoeuvres  of  Auguste  Roussel  and  Arthur  Loth,  two  jour- 
nalists who  seceded  from  the  Univers  immediately  after  that 
journal's  conversion  to  republicanism,  and  founded  a  new 
journal,  La  Verite  frangaise,  in  i893-664  In  combating  the 


I?6  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

rallies,  the  Verite  did  not  openly  repudiate  the  papal  letters: 
that  was  not  necessary.  It  was  easier,  and  more  expedient,  to 
"  interpret  "  the  pope's  words.  Said  Arthur  Loth : 

As  the  established  government  the  Republic  has  a  right  to  the  sub- 
mission of  the  citizens,  to  the  payment  of  taxes,  to  the  fulfilment 
of  the  various  civil  and  military  obligations.  .  .  .  To  go  further 
than  that,  for  France,  would  be  to  falsify  the  intention  of  the  pope 
and  to  deny  the  facts.  ...  It  [the  Republic]  rests  neither  on  legiti- 
mate right  nor  on  popular  acclaim.  It  has  only  actual  possession 
and  the  fact  of  being  established.665 

Tirelessly  the  Verite  reiterated  that  the  pope  had  forbidden 
French  Catholics  to  be  rebels  but  had  not  bidden  them  to  be- 
come Republicans;  that  the  rallies  were  mistakenly  making 
terms  with  the  error  of  "  Liberalism  "  and  accepting  religious 
liberty  instead  of  demanding  the  preservation  of  the  union  of 
Church  and  State;  that  the  rallies  were  cooperating  with  non- 
Catholics  in  politics.  The  effect  of  the  Verite 's  campaign  was 
to  keep  alive  that  very  antagonism  between  monarchist  and 
republican  Catholics  which  it  had  been  Leo  XIIFs  obvious  pur- 
pose in  1892  to  dissipate.  Monarchist  agitation  of  this  type 
furnished  the  anticlericals  with  a  permanent  argument  for  anti- 
Catholic  legislation, —  the  argument  that  clericalism  was  the 
enemy  of  the  Republic. 

It  was  not  surprising,  then,  that  on  January  30,  1895,  Car- 
dinal Rampolla  as  papal  secretary  of  state  should  have  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  Auguste  Roussel,  editor-in-chief  of  the 
Verite,  containing  a  siharp  reproof  : 

...  I  cannot  conceal  it  from  you,  although  it  pains  me  to  say  so, 
that  the  program  hitherto  followed  by  the  editors  of  the  Verite 
does  not  correspond  in  fact  either  to  the  rules  given  or  to  the 
desires  expressed  by  His  Holiness.  .  .  .  Notwithstanding  the  claim 
it  makes  to  be  seconding  the  views  of  the  Holy  See,  it  [the  Verite] 
is  in  disagreement  with  the  Holy  See.  In  effect,  its  articles  are 
rather  designed  to  excite  people's  minds  against  the  Republic, 
although  it  [the  Verite]  accepts  the  constitutional  fact ;  they  nourish 
in  the  minds  of  the  readers  the  conviction  that  it  is  in  vain  to 
expect  religious  peace  with  such  a  form  of  government.666 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  177 

This  direct  personal  rebuke  seems  to  have  had  little  more  ef- 
fect than  the  Encyclical. 

The  Verite  splendidly  illustrates  the  combination  of  political 
and  religious  with  social  intransigence.  In  one  and  the  same 
article,  the  Verite  alluded  with  evident  admiration  to  the  Sylla- 
bus of  Errors  as  "  that  venerable  charter,  now  cast  aside  [by  the 
Christian  Democrats,  presumably],  of  the  old  monarchical™1 
Catholicism,"  and  in  the  next  breath  inveighed  against  "  the 
young  party  of  rallies  and  Christian  Socialists,"  which  "  shows 
us  only  -too  clearly  that  it  hardly  concerns  itself  any  more  with 
the  old  principles  and  that  it  believes  itself  capable  of  founding 
a  new  Christianity  on  new  bases."  668 

In  this  spirit  of  intransigence,  the  monarchists  will  be  found, 
as  our  story  progresses,  uncompromisingly  hostile  to  rallies, 
Christian  Democrats,  and  Social  Catholics.  They  will  compass 
the  defeat  of  de  Mun  in  the  elections  of  1893  '•>  tnev  will  be  bitter 
antagonists  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party.  The  effect  of  the 
papal  intervention  in  1891-1892  was  to  divorce  monarchism 
from  Social  Catholicism.669 

The  attitude  of  the  monarchists  not  only  aggravated  the 
dissensions  among  French  Catholics,  and  thereby  weakened  the 
powers  of  the  Catholics  to  resist  anticlerical  attacks ;  far  more, 
by  combining  an  almost  arrogant  championship  of  the  privileges 
of  Catholicism  as  state  religion  with  a  disdainful  repudiation 
of  republicanism  and  of  social  legislation,  the  monarchists 
enabled  anticlerical  politicians  to  persuade  the  masses  that 
"  clericalism  "  was  unalterably  opposed  not  only  to  the  Republic 
but  also  to  the  interests  of  the  workingman.  Intransigent 
monarchism  was  not  the  only  cause,  but  it  was  a  very  powerful 
cause,  of  the  anticlerical  coalition  of  bourgeois  radicalism  or 
anticlericalism  with  socialism,  and  of  the  consequent  growth  of 
socialist-radicalism. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  since  1882  each  step  in  the 
progress  of  socialism  had  been  followed  by  a  bid  for  proletarian 
support  on  the  part  of  bourgeois  radicals.  In  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  elected  in  1885  fiye  Socialists  appeared,  whereas  in 
the  preceding  legislature  there  had  been  but  one.670  Two 


178  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

months  after  the  elections  of  1885  one  of  the  leading  radicals, 
M.  Clemenceau, —  who  in  1884  had  rejected  the  principle  of 
social  insurance,671  —  adjured  his  colleagues:  "Let  us  enact 
factory  laws,  a  good  law  of  public  assistance  [for  the  aged  and 
the  infirm,  presumably],  good  credit  laws;  let  us  reduce  the 
cost  of  justice;  let  us  effect  a  better  adjustment  of  taxation. 
»  672  'p^g  appointment  of  Lockroy,  in  1886,  as  minister  of 
commerce  and  industry  in  a  Radical  coalition  cabinet,673  was  a 
direct  overture  to  the  workingman,  inasmuch  as  Lockroy,  by 
advocating  emancipation  of  the  trade-unions,674  had  achieved 
great  popularity  and  in  the  elections  of  1885  had  received  more 
votes  than  any  other  candidate  in  Paris.675  Lockroy  immedi- 
ately proposed  several  moderate  measures,  such  as  industrial 
arbitration,  the  development  of  vocational  training,  prohibition 
of  child  labor  (under  thirteen  years),  regulation  of  the  labor 
of  women  and  young  persons,  and  the  establishment  of  a  coun- 
cil to  represent  industry  and  commerce.  But  other  matters 
diverted  attention,  and  little  was  done.678 

A  few  years  later  the  continued  growth  of  socialism  again 
caused  the  bourgeois  republicans  to  make  a  bid  for  proletarian 
support.  In  1887  the  Socialists  elected  ten  representatives  (one 
"  Blanquist  "  and  nine  "  Possibilists  ")  to  the  municipal  council 
of  Paris.677  In  1888  eighteen  deputies  formed  a  Socialist  group 
in  the  national  Chamber  of  Deputies.678  The  Republicans,  as  a 
concession  to  the  Socialists,  proposed  to  set  aside  two  sittings 
weekly  for  the  discussion  of  social  legislation.679 

The  Boulanger  agitation,  in  1888  and  1889,  served  as  a  "  red 
herring  "  to  distract  attention  from  social  problems.  Some  of 
the  Socialists  (the  Possibilists680)  joined  with  Radicals  like 
Clemenceau,  feeling  that  it  was  necessary  to  defend  the  Repub- 
lic. Thanks  to  the  Boulanger  scare,  the  bourgeois  Republicans 
were  able  to  win  the  general  elections  of  1889  on  the  familiar 
platform  of  defense  of  Republican  liberty  against  monarchist 
plots  and  clerical  intolerance.681 

This  was  the  situation  when  the  publication  of  Rerum  No- 
vanim,  in  1891,  gave  renewed  confidence  to  Social  Catholics 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  179 

and  Christian  Democrats  and  called  public  attention  to  the  fact 
that  Catholicism,  no  less  than  socialism,  advocated  certain 
definite  measures  of  social  legislation,  presented  an  ambitious 
social  program,  and  claimed  to  champion  the  welfare  of  the 
masses.  In  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  Count  Albert  de  Mun 
could  now  invoke  the  authority  of  the  Encyclical  for  what  had 
hitherto  appeared  as  his  own  personal  and  somewhat  paradoxi- 
cal compound  of  religious  conservatism  and  social  radicalism. 
Would  it  be  possible  for  the  Socialists  and  the  clericals  now  to 
cooperate  in  forcing  social  legislation  through  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  overpowering  the  opposition  of  the  bourgeois  Repub- 
licans ?  One  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  Marxian  Socialist 
leaders,  Paul  Lafargue,  seemed  to  think  that  such  a  combina- 
tion was  not  'only  possible  but  desirable. 

The  very  suggestion  of  such  a  combination  was  sufficient  to 
throw  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  into  an  uproar.  It  was  in  the 
debate  of  December  8,  1891,  that  Lafargue  made  his  appeal.682 
He  had  taken  the  floor  to  plead  for  the  release  of  imprisoned 
labor  agitators,  and  to  denounce  the  Government's  policy  of 
persecuting  labor.  The  minister  of  the  interior,  he  had  de- 
clared, treated  "  the  Socialists  and  the  workingmen  with  a 
brutality  and  an  illegality  to  be  found  only  in  despotic  states." 
The  alternative  to  the  Government's  policy  of  blind  repression 
was  a  policy  of  social  reforms  and  appeasement.  This  was  the 
real  issue,  he  declared ;  it  was  the  one  transcendent  issue.  The 
religious  question,  which  had  so  long  been  given  first  considera- 
tion, was  only  a  diversion,  a  distraction.  Lafargue  himself 
was  anti-Christian,  as  far  as  religion  was  concerned.  "  I  am  an 
atheist;  I  am  a  materialist,"  he  frankly  announced.  But  he 
considered  the  labor  problem  more  important  than  religious 
controversies.  Religion,  he  thought,  was  a  personal  affair. 
He  did  not  ask  people  whether  they  were  Christians,  or  whether 
they  were  eager  for  the  separation  of  Church  and  State.  The 
question  of  separation  of  Church  and  State  was  only  a  "  toy," 
with  which  the  bourgeois  politicians  had  "  amused  "  themselves 
during  the  last  twenty  years.  But  he  did  ask,  he  went  on  to 


l8o  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

say,  "  are  you  for  the  suppression  of  the  wage-system  ?  Are 
you  for  the  socialization  of  the  means  of  production?  Are  you 
for  socialist  reforms  ?  " 

Regardless,  therefore,  of  religious  differences,  he  wished  to 
solicit  "  the  cooperation  of  all  who  desire  labor  reforms,  of  all 
who  wish  to  alleviate  human  sufferings."  "  We  address  our- 
selves," he  continued,  "  as  much  to  this  side  of  the  Chamber 
[the  Right]  as  to  that  [the  Left]." 

When  Laf argue  attempted  to  reinforce  his  plea  by  mention- 
ing Leo  XIIFs  Encyclical  on  the  labor  problem,  indignant  ex- 
clamations from  the  anticlericals  of  Center  and  Left  cut  him 
short.683  Even  the  president  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  tem- 
porarily forgot  his  function  as  impartial  moderator  and  de- 
livered a  stinging  retort.  Frenchmen,  said  the  president,  had 
not  waited  for  the  pope's  authorization  to  become  socialists. 

Another  remark  of  Lafargue's  created  a  sensation.  "  One  of 
the  best  socialist  speeches  "  which  had  been  delivered  in  the 
Chamber  oi  Deputies,  he  asserted,  was  made  by  the  Social 
Catholic  orator,  Count  Albert  de  Mun.  After  the  noise  had 
subsided,  an  anticlerical  jeeringly  remarked,  that  Lafargue  had 
good  reason  to  express  such  views  since  the  "  reactionaries  had 
voted  for  him."  Another  deputy  called  him  "  a  soldier  of  the 
pope."  Still  others  interjected  sarcastic  comments.684 

After  several  other  speakers  had  taken  the  floor,  either  to 
uphold  the  policy  of  the  Government 685  or  to  assert  that  the 
Church  was  attempting  to  turn  the  socialist  movement  into 
channels  serviceable  to  clerical  interests,686  or  to  reject  the  pro- 
posed amnesty  because  it  was  a  "  political  manifestation  accom- 
panied by  a  suggestion  of  alliance  between  socialism  and  Cath- 
olic socialism," 687  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  in  his  turn,  arose 
and  replied  to  Lafargue.688 

First  of  all,  Count  de  Mun  explained  that  he  never  had  and 
never  would  call  himself  a  Socialist,  because  socialism  was 
"  entirely  opposed,"  in  its  point  of  departure,  to  his  own  re- 
ligious convictions,  and  because  he  considered  the  collectivist 
ideal  to  be  "  neither  just  nor  practical."  But,  this  reservation 
made,  he  said, 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  181 

I  do  not  need  to  tell  anybody  here  that  in  effect  I  am  agreed  with 
the  socialists,  with  the  speaker  [Lafargue]  who  has  just  addressed 
you,  regarding  the  criticism  of  the  present  economic  order  and  re- 
garding a  very  large  number  of  social  reforms  which  are  daily 
demanded  by  the  laborers.  [Applause  from  the  Left.] 

M.  Lafargue  could  rightly  say  that,  on  these  points,  I  was  much 
more  in  agreement  with  him  and  with  his  friends  than  with  a  large 
number  of  members  of  the  majority  of  this  Chamber.  [Noise  in 
the  Center.] 

De  Mun  then  went  on  to  say  that,  although  he  was  separated 
from  the  Socialists  by  his  religious  convictions,  he  was  even 
more  widely  separated  from  the  bourgeois  Republican  majority. 

There  is  unquestionably  a  profound  disagreement  between  us 
[Social  Catholics  and  Lafargue],  an  abyss  which  will  not  disappear; 
it  results  from  the  firmness  of  my  religious  convictions.  But  this 
abyss, —  I  regret  to  say, —  I  perceive  not  only  between  myself  and 
him,  but  also  between  myself  and  the  greater  number  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  majority  [applause  from  various  benches]  and  I  must 
add  that  furthermore  I  am  separated  from  the  majority  by  an 
equally  profound  disagreement  touching  social  reforms,  in  principle 
and  in  application. 

When  de  Mun,  continuing,  affirmed  that  the  social  reforms 
which  he  and  the  Socialists  had  incessantly  demanded  were  to 
be  realized  not  by  attacking  the  Church,  but  with  the  aid  of 
the  Church,  members  of  the  Left  interrupted  him,  saying  that 
there  were  only  seven  "  socialists  "  in  the  Right,  and  that  de 
Mun's  own  friends  were  opposed  to  his  social  doctrines.  De 
Mun  replied, 

Do  I  not  know,  as  everybody  knows,  that  between  myself  and  many 
of  my  friends  there  are  disagreements  on  these  questions  of  social 
reforms?  Have  I  ever  drawn  back  from  the  painful  duty  of  de- 
fending my  ideas  here  against  my  best  friends?  No,  never! 

His  profound  convictions,  he  said,  could  be  influenced  neither 
by  the  regret  that  his  friends  refused  to  support  him,  nor  by 
the  applause,  sincere  in  some  cases,  and  ironical  in  others,  of 
the  other  parties. 

As  for  the  specific  question  under  debate,  namely  the  amnesty 


182  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

for  labor  leaders,  'he  could  not  agree  with  Lafargue.  It  was 
not  right  to  "  efface  the  condemnations  pronounced  against  the 
men  who  have  stirred  up  and  excited  popular  passions."  He 
considered  violence  in  labor  disputes  to  be  unwise  and  deplor- 
able. The  wiser  course  was,  not  to  condone  class  warfare  and 
violence,  but  to  satisfy  the  legitimate  claims  of  labor.  This 
latter  course  he  would  defend  with  all  his  heart. 

It  was  high  time  for  bourgeois  anticlericals  to  take  alarm. 
With  both  Social  Catholicism  and  Revolutionary  Socialism 
promising  the  workingman  solid  material  benefits,  would  mere 
middle-class  Republicanism  be  able  to  survive?  As  Eugene 
Spuller,  a  prominent  anticlerical  politician,  pointed  out, 

It  is  certain,  in  fact,  that  at  the  present  hour  the  general  principles 
of  the  Revolution  are  being  battered  down  with  redoubled  vigor 
by  all  the  Socialists.  Whether  it  be  the  pretendedly  scientific  so- 
cialism of  Karl  Marx  or  the  Christian  socialism  of  men  who  claim 
to  draw  their  inspiration  from  the  teachings  of  the  Church,  little 
matters.  There  is  evident  a  movement  against  the  liberty  of  labor 
and  even  against  the  principle  of  property,  as  these  principles  were 
understood  and  comprehended  by  the  Revolution,  and  the  social 
evolution  of  the  Church  can  only  give  new  force  to  this  move- 
ment.689 

The  Church,  Spuller  believed,  was  endeavoring  to  dominate 
the  masses,  to  seize  the  leadership  of  the  people.  Apparently  he 
was  much  perturbed  by  the  prospect  of  what  might  happen  "  if 
the  Church,  taking  the  lead,  starts  to  excite  the  masses  in  what 
they  call  their  social  claims."  Again  he  said,  "  the  Church  is 
taking  a  step  in  the  direction  of  the  masses,  now  that  she  is 
detached  from  the  princes  and  monarchies  and  needs  another 
support ;  and  this  is  what  must  be  clearly  perceived  and  pon- 
dered." 69°  To  quote  still  further  from  the  same  author, — 

Nothing  is  more  interesting  to  follow  than  the  great  and  profound 
movement  of  opinion  which  may  be  observed  almost  everywhere 
and  which  is  pushing  the  Catholics  of  all  countries  into  the  front 
rank  of  those  who  place  social  questions  above  political  or  dynastic 
questions. 

.  .  .  Turned   in   this   direction,   and   marching  in   this   path,   with 
the  power  of  rejuvenation  and  of  transformation  of  which  her  long 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  183 

history  gives  so  many  proofs,  the  Church  is  preparing  to  play  an 
infinitely  more  important  role  than  is  commonly  believed  in  the 
great  affairs  of  the  twentieth  century,  of  which  we  are  beginning  to 
catch  the  first  glimpses.691 

While  Spuller  was  pointing  out  how  old-fashioned  bourgeois 
anticlericalism  and  Republicanism  were  exposed  to  the  twofold 
peril  of  proletarian  socialism  and  "  Christian  socialism,"  a  few 
of  the  younger  and  more  enterprising  bourgeois  anticlericals, 
far  from  seeing  a  menace  in  socialism,  were  going  over  to  the 
proletarian  movement  and  assuming  its  leadership.  Repub- 
licanism and  anticlericalism,  they  thought,  should  logically  lead 
to  socialism,  and  could  not  be  established  on  a  firm  basis  with- 
out socialism.  Jaures  and  Millerand  were  the  most  conspicu- 
ous of  these  younger  leaders,  who  annexed  the  popular  doctrines 
of  socialism  to  the  older  principles  of  bourgeois  anticlerical 
Republicanism  or  Radicalism.  This  new  move  on  the  part  of 
the  Radicals  was  a  direct  challenge  to  Social  Catholicism  and  as 
such  vitally  affected  the  latter  movement.  The  point  will  per- 
haps be  made  clearer  by  a  brief  review  of  the  tactics  which 
Millerand  and  Jaures  pursued. 

Alexandre  Millerand,  a  young  lawyer,  began  his  political 
career  as  a  Radical.  It  was  as  a  Radical  that  he  figured  in  the 
Paris  municipal  elections  of  1884.  His  transition  to  socialism 
occurred  during  the  later  'eighties.  In  1885  he  was  elected  to 
the  Chamber  by  a  combined  Radical  and  Socialist  vote.  In 
1888  we  find  him  subscribing  to  the  socialistic  (it  was  hardly 
Marxian)  program  of  the  "  Socialist  Group  "  in  the  Chamber. 
In  1891,  as  counsel  for  the  Marxist  Paul  Lafargue,  who  was 
then  on  trial  for  expressing  violent  proletarian  sympathies  in 
the  warfare  of  the  classes,  Millerand  identified  himself  more 
emphatically  with  collectivism.  And  on  November  28,  1891, 
he  joined  with  Goblet,  Lockroy,  Sarrien,  and  Peytral  in  pub- 
lishing a  proclamation  in  the  Petite  Repnblique,  calling  upon  all 
Socialists  and  all  Republicans  to  cooperate  in  disestablishing  the 
Church,  limiting  the  working-day,  restricting  child-labor  and 
fentale  labor,  establishing  old-age  pensions,  and  enforcing 
hygienic  conditions  in  the  factories.692 


184  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

It  was  Alexandra  Millerand  who,  in  the  famous  debate  of 
December  8,  1891,  pointed  out  to  the  Republicans  the  peril  of 
a  rapprochement  between  socialism  and  Social  Catholicism. 
The  social  trend  of  the  Church  made  clericalism  more  than 
ever  the  enemy.  He  said, 

Yes,  we  have  to  sustain  a  conflict  with  the  Church  at  this  mo- 
ment. .  .  .  Today,  in  fact,  everybody  knows  that  it  is  a  conflict  with- 
out mercy  .  .  .  between  the  Republican  idea  and  the  Church,  .  .  . 
the  Church  which  —  as  M.  de  Mun  has  just  told  you  —  thinks  to 
draw  to  herself  the  toiling  masses  by  holding  before  their  eyes 
the  hope  that  socialist  doctrines  will  be  defended  by  none  better 
or  more  eloquently  or  more  effectively  than  by  those  who,  like  M. 
de  Mun,  vaunt  the  Catholic  doctrine.693 

The  Republican  party,  said  Millerand,  must  make  some  reply 
to  this  doctrine.  Should  that  reply  consist  merely  of  speeches? 
Did  they  believe  that  the  laboring  classes  would  content  them- 
selves indefinitely  with  the  promises  showered  upon  them, 
promises  which  "  hitherto  have  not  been  followed  by  realities  "  ? 
Did  the  Republicans  not  see  that  promises  must  be  accompanied 
by  deeds?  Labor  laws  had  long  been  discussed  but  had  not 
been  voted.  Bills  regarding  accident-compensation,  old-age 
pensions,  and  many  other  questions,  "  slumber  in  the  legislative 
pigeon-holes  and  have  not  yet  assumed,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
worker,  of  the  laboring  class,  the  aspect  of  living  realities." 
The  Government  and  the  immense  majority  of  the  Republican 
party  had  made  promises  which  they  had  not  yet  honored. 
"  Do  you  not  understand,"  he  asked  them  impatiently,  "  that 
you  must  seize  eagerly  every  occasion  to  prove  to  the  working- 
men  that  your  promises  and  your  declarations  are  not  merely 
vain  words  ?  "  694  Millerand,  then,  was  a  bourgeois  anticlerical 
who  thoroughly  understood  the  importance  of  bringing  anti- 
clericalism  and  socialism  into  alliance. 

Jaures,  another  bourgeois  intellectual,  a  university  lecturer, 
in  fact,  certainly  gave  no  outward  sign  of  marked  socialistic 
inclinations  when  he  entered  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in  1885. 
He  took  his  seat  among  the  middle-class  anticlericals  of  the 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  185 

Left  Center.  In  1888  he  was  still  sufficiently  a  bourgeois  to 
remain  outside  the  parliamentary  "  Socialist  Group."  Being 
defeated  in  the  elections  of  1889,  he  returned  to  academic  life. 
When  next  he  appeared  in  politics,  it  was  as  a  collectivist  can- 
didate from  Carmaux,  in  the  elections  of  1893.  It  is  significant 
that  in  espousing  collectivism  Jaures  did  not  forsake  Radical- 
ism. He  declared  it  necessary  to  "  annex  to  the  economic  pro- 
gram of  Socialism  the  political  program  of  Radicalism."  The 
Radicals,  discerning  that  Jaures  would  be  more  valuable  as  an 
ally  in  the  bourgeois  struggle  against  clericalism,  militarism, 
and  monarchism  than  dangerous  as  an  apostle  of  the  proletarian 
revolution,  helped  to  elect  him  in  1893.  He  fulfilled  their  ex- 
pectations. He  rendered  splendid  service  in  the  Dreyfus  case ; 
he  approved  socialist  cooperation  with  the  bourgeois  Repub- 
licans during  the  years  1899-1905,  when  anticlerical  legislation 
occupied  parliament's  time  much  to  the  disadvantage  of  social 
legislation ;  and  under  his  tactful  and  conciliatory  leadership 
the  Socialists  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  though  they  waxed  in 
numbers,  were  a  menace  less  to  the  Radical  bourgeoisie  than  to 
the  clericals  and  the  militarists.695 

The  entry  of  bourgeois  anticlericals  like  Jaures  and  Millerand 
into  the  Socialist  movement,  coinciding  almost  exactly  in  point 
of  time  with  the  Catholic  ralliement  to  the  Republic,  meant  that 
the  Social  Catholic  republicans  or  rallies  had  to  encounter 
extremely  vigorous  opposition  from  the  Socialists  as  well  as 
from  the  reactionaries.  In  the  electoral  battle  of  1893  the 
rallies  were  raked  by  a  cross-fire  of  criticism  from  the  social- 
istic Radicals  or  parliamentary  Socialists  on  one  hand,  and 
from  uncompromising  monarchists  on  the  other  hand.  The 
predicament  was  embarrassing. 

Despite  their  embarrassment,  the  rallies  were  determined  not 
to  mince  words.  Their  foremost  orator,  Count  Albert  de  Mun, 
not  only  declared  and  reiterated  his  decision  to  accept  the 
Republic,  but,  going  still  further,  he  challenged  the  conserva- 
tives no  less  boldly  on  the  social  question  than  on  the  constitu- 
tional issue.  Imagine  the  consternation  of  wealthy  reaction- 


186  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

aries  when  they  read  in  the  morning  papers  that  the  most 
brilliant  orator  of  the  Right,  a  member  of  the  hereditary  aris- 
tocracy, had  uttered  words  such  as  these: 

The  great  problem  of  the  moment  is  socialism.  There  are  two 
ways  of  attacking  this  problem :  in  alliance  with  the  capitalists  or 
in  alliance  with  the  people.  To  make  an  alliance  with  Judaism  696 
and  High  Finance  is  to  prepare  the  path  for  a  socialism  which 
will  go  to  no  one  can  tell  what  excesses.  At  the  risk  of  appearing 
as  one  crying  in  the  wilderness  and  as  an  extremist,  I  say:  that 
which  needs  to  be  protected  is  not  capital,  it  is  labor !  We  must 
not  allow  the  belief  to  exist  that  the  Church  is  a  cassocked  police- 
man who  throws  his  weight  against  the  people  in  defense  of,  and 
in  the  sole  interest  of  capital ;  it  must  be  understood,  on  the  con- 
trary, that  the  Church  acts  in  the  interest  of  and  for  the  defense 
of  the  weak.  When  the  people  know  this,  when  they  are  thoroughly 
convinced  that  the  Church  is  not  made  for  wealth,  then  our  efforts 
will  be  on  the  threshold  of  success,  and  the  idea  of  the  Holy  Father 
will  be  realized.  "  Repeat  that,"  he  said  to  me,  "  speak  often  of  the 
social  action  of  the  Church."  69T 

The  ire  of  the  conservatives  at  this  speech  need  not  be  left 
entirely  to  the  imagination  of  the  reader.  Some  faint  indica- 
tion of  their  frame  of  mind  may  be  gathered  from  the  follow- 
ing passage  which  appeared  in  a  royalist  journal : 

To  speak  of  forming  an  alliance  with  the  people  against  the  capital- 
ists, to  take  the  part  of  labor  against  capital  systematically,  and  of 
the  workingmen  against  the  employers,  is  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  preaching  class  war  [la  guerre  sociale]  ;  it  is  speaking  like  the 
leaders  of  the  militant  Socialist  party,  like  those  who  desire  the 
destruction  of  society.698 

From  M.  Piou,  whose  nature  was  more  that  of  a  shrewd 
lawyer-politician  than  that  of  an  ardent  apostle  of  Christian 
Socialism,  we  should  expect  less  resonant  words  than  those  of 
de  Mun  in  regard  to  the  social  question.  Even  M.  Piou, 
however,  ventured  to  say  that  the  way  to  defeat  socialism  was 
not  by  uncompromising  opposition,  but  by  magnanimous  con- 
cession of  complete  justice  to  labor.  "  It  is  by  conceding  all 
that  is  just  that  we  can  block  the  path  to  socialism,"  No 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  187 

hesitation  existed  in  his  mind  that,  "  at  least,"  any  "  democratic 
legislation  "  ought  to  favor  the  organization  of  industry,  foster 
more  intimate  relations  between  labor  and  capital,  develop  in- 
dustrial arbitration,  social  insurance,  profit-sharing,  and  old- 
age  pensions.  These  proposals  may  sound  conservative  enough 
to  many  a  twentieth-century  reader,  but  they  were  not  conserva- 
tive when  they  were  made.  In  1893  the  trade-unions  were  still 
hampered  by  restrictions ;  social  insurance  was  virtually  non- 
existent ;  and  an  old-age  pension  law  was  still  seventeen  years 
in  the  future. 

Nevertheless,  labor  legislation  was  with  M.  Piou  a  minor 
issue,  subordinate  to  the  great  controversial  questions  of  repub- 
licanism and  religion.  For,  as  the  political  leader  of  the  Con- 
stitutional Right,  he  was  busily  engaged  in  organizing  the  forces 
of  his  party  for  the  impending  electoral  contest  of  August, 
1893,  in  which  the  great  question  would  be  whether  the 
Catholics  would  follow  the  pope's  advice  and  accept  the  Re- 
public. 

On  the  eve  of  the  elections,  M.  Piou  met  with  about  two 
hundred  Catholic  leaders  at  the  residence  of  Baron  Hely 
d'Oissel  and  organized  the  group  of  the  Republican  Right. 
Prince  d'Arenberg  was  given  the  presidency  of  the  party,  at 
least  in  name,  and  a  Delegation  of  Studies  (delegation  d' etudes) 
was  formed  to  study  the  policies  which  the  new  group  should 
adopt.  In  the  list  of  the  members  of  the  Delegation,  we 
recognize  the  name  of  M.  Piou,  and  also  of  MM.  D.  Guibert 
and  A.  Viellard,  members-to-be  of  the  future  Popular  Liberal 
Party.699 

At  a  party  banquet  on  June  20,  two  months  'before  the  elec- 
tions, M.  Piou  defined  his  plan  to  build  up  the  party  of  the 
Republican  Right  (Droite  republicaine) ,  "to  accept  the  Repub- 
lic "  unequivocally,  and  to  defend  "  order,  authority,  religious 
liberty,  social  justice."  France,  he  said,  was  weary  of  revolu- 
tions, and  athirst  for  tolerance,  justice,  and  reform.700 

It  was  not  easy  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  those  who  would  have 
led  the  new  party  astray  from  the  path  of  republicanism, 
religious  liberty,  and  social  reform  marked  out  by  M.  Piou. 


i88  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

On  one  hand,  the  monarchist  d'Haussonville  invited  the  rallies 
to  cast  their  lot  with  him,  and  generously  offered,  while  remain- 
ing a  monarchist,  to  say  nothing  about  it  in  the  electoral  cam- 
paign.701 Had  the  rallies  yielded  to  his  inducements,  the  whole 
movement  of  Republican  Social  Catholicism  might  have  been 
derailed  and  perhaps  irreparably  damaged.  For  d'Hausson- 
ville and  his  fellow-monarchists,  as  has  been  pointed  out,  were 
no  less  reactionary  in  social  .than  in  political  questions.  What 
negation  of  de  Mun's  Social  Catholic  doctrine,  or  of  Leo 
XIII's  doctrine,  could  be  more  complete  than  d'Haussonville's 
rhetorical  question :  "  Why  seek  to  compromise  the  Church  in 
questions  in  which  it  has  no  call  to  meddle  ?  "  and  his  reply, 
"  the  Church  has  been  involved  only  too  frequently  in  our 
political  conflicts ;  let  us  not  involve  it  in  our  economic  strug- 
gles ? " 702  Fortunately  for  the  Social  Catholic  movement, 
d'Haussonville's  words  were  not  heeded. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  moderate  Republicans,  particularly 
the  Progressists,  sought  to  incorporate  the  rallies  into  an 
essentially  conservative,  anti-socialist,  republican  coalition.  M. 
Etienne  Lamy,  a  Republican  of  recognized  standing  since  the 
'seventies,  painted  a  glowing  picture  of  a  two-party  system,  in 
which  the  alternation  of  conservatives  and  liberals  in  power 
would  propel  France  gently  and  safely  along  the  path  of  con- 
servative progress.703  Would  M.  Lamy's  vision,  imported  from 
England,  win  the  favor  of  the  rallies  and  be  realized  in  the 
formation  of  a  Tory  or  conservative  party  in  France? 

To  the  vision  of  a  coalition  party,  moderate  or  conservative 
in  temper,  such  as  M.  Lamy  had  in  mind,  M.  Piou  was  not  at  all 
blind.  In  one  of  his  more  sanguine  moments,  he  gave  utter- 
ance to  the  hope  that  from  the  small  beginnings  of  1892-1893 
there  would  grow  a  great  "  parti  tory  "  or  "  parti  conservateur 
democratique,"  with  the  motto  emblazoned  on  its  banners  of 
"  A  Republic  open  to  all,  tolerant,  and  fair "  (Republique 
ouverte,  tolerante  et  honnete}.  "All  those,"  he  went  on  to 
prophesy,  "  who  mean  to  resist  the  apostles  of  socialistic  Neo- 
Radicalism  and  the  fanatics  of  Free- Masonry,  will  take  their 
place  in  our  ranks,  and  they  are  legion !  "  70* 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  189 

M.  Leon  Say,  a  wealthy  economist,  an  abhorrer  of  socialism, 
and  owner  in  part  of  the  Journal  des  Debats,  felt  something  of 
the  same  longing  for  a  party  of  aristocratic  conservatism,  unit- 
ing the  Progressist  Republicans  and  the  rallies,  as  a  counter- 
poise to  the  socialistic  tendencies  of  the  Left.705  A  coalition  of 
this  sort,  with  the  Center  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  would 
have  been  formed  at  the  expense  of  M.  Piou's  social  program, 
since  on  the  benches  of  the  Center,  among  the  Progressists 
were  to  be  found  very  few  friends  of  any  but  the  mildest  social 
legislation.  In  truth,  MM.  Leon  Say,  Frederic  Passy,  Yves 
Guyot,  and  other  leading  Progressists  were  indomitable  foes 
of  any  law  that  smacked  of  socialism.  Had  M.  Piou  and  his 
followers  become  simply  Progressists,  de  Mun  would  have 
been  more  than  ever  "  a  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness,"  almost 
alone  in  his  Social  Catholicism. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  M.  Piou's  Republican  Right  was  a  little 
too  strong  in  its  clericalism,  a  little  too  emphatic  in  its  opposi- 
tion to  the  classical  school  of  political  economy,  to  lose  its 
identity  in  a  merger  with  the  moderates  and  Progressists,  who 
were  for  the  most  part  anti-interventionists  and  individualists. 
However,  a  number  of  the  rallies,  mostly  those  who  were  least 
touched  by  Count  Albert  de  Mun's  social  message,  showed  a 
very  strong  inclination  toward  such  a  merger,  and  in  the  course 
of  the  decade  from  1893  to  I9°3  many  of  them  preserved  a 
divided  allegiance  between  the  Republican  Right  and  the  Pro- 
gressist group ;  two  score  of  them  definitely  went  over  to  the  Pro- 
gressists in  1897  706;  while  others  maintained  their  ambiguous 
position  until  several  years  after  the  formation  of  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party.707  It  might  be  said  with  much  truth  that  the 
more  conservative  a  rallie  was  in  his  attitude  toward  social  re- 
form, the  more  he  tended  to  drift  from  the  Republican  Right 
toward  the  Center.  In  fact,  in  questions  of  social  justice,  the 
Chamber  presented  the  appearance  of  an  army  whose  wings 
were  advancing  rapidly,  eager  for  the  fray,  while  the  center 
hung  back  in  caution,  loath  to  leave  the  shelter  of  its  com- 
fortably intrenched  position. 

The  question  quite  naturally  arises,  why  did  not  the  more 


THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

ardent  clerical  reformers,  those  who  like  de  Mun  were  called 
Christian  Socialists,  ally  themselves  with  the  Socialists  of  the 
Extreme  Left,  so  that  in  very  truth  the  two  wings  would  ad- 
vance together  toward  a  new  conception  of  social  justice,  drag- 
ging the  reluctant  Progressists  and  other  moderates  of  the  Cen- 
ter willy-nilly  behind  them?  Had  not  the  Socialist  Paul 
Lafargue  declared,  in  1891,  that  "one  of  the  best  Socialist 
speeches  which  has  been  delivered  here  [in  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies]  was  made  by  M.  de  Mun  "?  And  had  not  de  Mun, 
on  his  own  part,  confessed  that  he  was  more  in  sympathy  with 
Lafargue  than  with  the  Center  ? 708 

In  practice,  the  two  extremes  of  the  Chamber  were  frequently 
found  arrayed  on  the  same  side  in  economic  controversies, — 
both  opposed  to  the  Center  and  Left  Center.  But  any  solid 
coalition  of  Socialists  and  Social  Catholics  was  quite  impossible. 
With  the  exception  of  Lafargue  and  perhaps  one  or  two  others, 
the  parliamentary  Socialists  and  Socialist-Radicals  went  out  of 
their  way  to  repudiate  the  assistance  of  the  Right 709  and  found 
a  working  agreement  with  the  anticlerical  defenders  of  capital- 
ism far  less  repugnant  to  their  taste  than  a  combination  with 
the  clerical  advocates  of  social  reform.  The  Socialists  showed 
more  interest  in  the  spiritual  welfare  than  in  the  material  con- 
dition of  the  masses.  By  a  paradoxical  inversion  of  their  own 
materialistic  interpretation  of  history,  the  Socialists  seemed  to 
act  as  if  philosophical  questions  of  religious  opinion  were  far 
more  substantial  and  weighed  incomparably  heavier  in  the  scales 
of  their  decision  than  did  the  solid,  material,  economic  class- 
interests  of  the  proletariat.  The  paradox  is  hard  to  understand 
unless  one  remembers  that  Jaures,  Millerand,  and  not  a  few 
other  leading  Socialist  politicians  were  not  bona  fide  "  pro- 
letarians "  at  all,  but  sons  of  the  middle  class. 

Perhaps  the  reader  will  not  find  it  surprising,  then,  that  in- 
stead of  heaving  a  sigh  of  relief  when  an  important  group  of 
monarchist-clericals  became  converted  to  the  Republic  and  to 
social  reform,  the  Radicals  and  many  of  the  Socialists  gave 
signs  of  positive  indignation.  It  was  their  Republic ;  what 
right  had  the  rallies  to  intrude?  If  the  Church  became  Repub- 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  191 

lican,  what  would  become  of  Alexandre  Millerand's  famous 
phrase  that  "  between  the  Republican  idea  and  the  Church  " 
there  was  "  a  struggle  without  mercy  "  ?  71° 

The  rallies  could  not  be  genuine  Republicans !  It  was  incon- 
ceivable. Alexandre  Millerand,  who  had  succeeded  to  the 
editorship  of  Gambetta's  celebrated  journal,  the  Petite  Repub- 
lique,711  as  well  as  to  Gambetta's  anticlerical  apostolate,  joined 
with  his  fellow-Socialist  Jean  Jaures  and  with  Camille  Pelletan, 
who  was  far  from  being  a  Socialist,  to  sound  the  battle-cry 
against  clericalism  and  to  sign  a  manifesto  urging  the  union  of 
"  all  true  Republicans  in  the  Social  Republic."  712 

The  party  in  power,  Charles  Dupuy  and  the  Radicals,  could 
not  have  been  better  pleased.  Once  more  clericalism  rather 
than  capitalism  would  be  the  enemy.  The  premier  could  re- 
gard the  parliamentary  Socialists  as  allies  against  rather  than 
allies  of  the  Christian  Socialists  and  rallies,  whom  he  scorn- 
fully styled  "  resignes."  713  With  one  hand  he  could  invite  the 
Socialists  to  take  their  stand  with  the  Left  and  even  with  the 
Center  on  a  bourgeois  platform  of  xthree  planks  only,  to  wit, 
( i )  vague  promises  of  labor  legislation,  to  be  conceived  in  the 
spirit  of  "  Republican  solidarity,"  (2)  tax  reform,  (3)  enact- 
ment of  an  Associations  Law  (which  would  strike  at  the  mo- 
nastic orders).71*  At  the  same  time,  letting  not  his  left  hand 
know  what  his  right  performed,  he  could  sternly  curb  the  labor 
movement  by  forcibly  suppressing,  on  July  7,  1893,  the  Paris 
Labor  Exchange,  which  had  served  as  a  hotbed  of  Revolution- 
ary Syndicalist  agitation.715 

Such  was  the  situation  in  the  summer  of  1893,  when  the 
new  party  of  the  rallies  or  the  Republican  Right,  out  of  which 
was  to  grow  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  entered  its  first  general 
electoral  contest.  The  group  was  fiercely  assailed,  both  by  the 
monarchists  upon  whom  it  had  turned  its  back  and  by  the 
"  true  "  Republicans  or  anticlerical  bourgeois  Radicals  and  So- 
cialists, whom  it  had  attacked  in  the  name  of  social  reform 
without  revolution  and  republican  liberty  without  anticlerical- 
ism.716 

The  result  was  bitterly  discouraging  for  the  men  who  had 


192  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

thought  to  blaze  a  trail  in  which  all  Catholic  Frenchmen  might 
follow,  as  Republican  rallies,  toward  a  happier  state  of  democ- 
racy and  social  justice.  Of  the  95  rallies  who  presented  them- 
selves as  candidates,  only  35  were  elected.  Most  disastrous  of 
all,  the  leaders  went  down  in  defeat.  To  lose  Count  Albert  de 
Mun  and  Jacques  Piou,  both,  was  a  heavy  blow.  What  added 
to  the  sting  of  defeat  was  the  knowledge  that  certainly  in  de 
Mun's  case  m  and  probably  in  the  case  of  Piou,718  the  disaster 
was  caused  by  the  opposition  of  monarchists  who  refused  to 
accept  the  Republic  and  who  were  determined  to  punish  the 
leaders  of  the  ralliement. 

If  the  new  group  of  rallies  was,  so  to  speak,  decapitated  by 
the  loss  of  its  leaders,  the  groups  of  Royalists,  Bonapartists, 
and  Boulangists  were  quite  as  grievously  dismembered. 
Whereas  in  the  preceding  election  these  three  groups  had  made 
a  very  respectable  showing  with  211  seats,  they  retained  only 
58  seats  in  1893.  The  French  nation  in  1893  pronounced  de- 
cisively the  doom  of  monarchism.  Hitherto  the  avowed  ene- 
mies of  the  Republic  had  been  influential  and  numerous. 
Henceforth  their  number  was  destined  to  decline  until  the 
dwindling  monarchist  group  in  the  Chamber  all  but  disap- 
peared.719 

The  losses  of  the  monarchist  Right  were  the  gains  of  the 
Center,  the  Left,  and  the  Extreme  Left.  The  moderate  and 
"  opportunist "  Republicans,  who  had  possessed  245  seats  in 
1889,  swept  all  before  them  in  1893  and  entered  the  new  legis- 
lature with  an  absolute  majority  of  317  seats.  The  quarrels  of 
the  clericals  and  the  anticlericalism  of  the  Socialists  were  prob- 
ably responsible  in  no  small  part  for  this  gain. 

The  Extreme  Lef/t,  that  is,  the  Radicals  and  Socialists,  made 
a  distinct  advance.  Altogether  there  were  122  Radicals  and 
about  50  Socialists  in  the  new  legislature,  as  compared  with 
119  Radicals  and  Socialists  in  the  old.720  With  orators  like 
Jean  Jaures,  Jules  Guesde,  Rene  Viviani,  Alexandre  Millerand, 
Marcel  Sembat,  and  Edouard  Vaillant,  the  Extreme  Left  and 
particularly  the  Socialist  group  were  not  likely  to  prove  a 
negligible  factor  in  the  new  Chamber  of  Deputies.  Nor  was  it 


EFFECT  OF  PAPAL  INTERVENTION  IQ3 

likely  that  the  bourgeois  Republicans  would  be  allowed  to  for- 
get that  the  Socialists  had  polled  something  like  600,000 
votes.721  Well  might  middle-class  politicians  ponder  the  words 
of  the  Socialist  Jaures : 

You  have  silenced  the  old  lullaby  [i.  e.f  religion]  which  stilled 
human  poverty,  and  human  poverty,  awakening  with  cries,  confronts 
you  and  demands  its  place  today,  its  large  place  in  the  sun  of  the 
natural  world,  the  only  one  which  you  have  not  darkened.  ...  It 
is  you  who  have  raised  the  revolutionary  temperature  of  the  pro- 
letariat, and  if  you  tremble  today  it  is  your  own  work.722 


CHAPTER  VII 

"  THE  NEW  SPIRIT  " 
1893-1899 

As  Jaures  pointed  out,  there  lay  a  grave  danger  for  middle- 
class  Republicanism  in  the  very  fact  that,  thanks  largely  to  the 
diversion  provided  by  the  rallies,  the  monarchists  had  been 
routed,  the  clerical  cohorts  disordered,  and  the  Republicans, 
apparently,  more  securely  than  ever  intrenched  in  power. 
Having  defended  the  Republic  for  the  bourgeois  parties,  the 
Socialist  working-classes  might  now  attempt  to  conquer  it  for 
themselves. 

From  the  very  first,  the  Socialist  group  in  the  newly-elected 
Chamber  of  Deputies  of  1893  gave  unmistakable  signs  of  an 
aggressive  disposition.  Hardly  had  the  session  opened  before 
Jean  Jaures  in  an  eloquent  oration,723  unfurling,  so  to  speak, 
the  red  flag  of  the  social  revolution,  led  the  Socialist  deputies 
in  a  vehement  attack  on  the  ministry.  It  was  the  siege  of 
Jericho  reenacted.  The  oratory  of  Jean  Jaures,  like  the 
trumpetings  of  the  Israelites  of  old,  brought  the  enemy's  fort- 
ress crashing  down  in  ruin.  In  reality,  however,  the  ministry 
was  less  like  a  fortress  than  like  a  house  divided  against  itself, 
for  the  president  of  the  council,  Charles  Dupuy,  could  not 
agree  with  his  Radical  minister  of  finance,  Peytral,  on  con- 
troversial questions  such  as  the  desirability  of  an  income  tax. 
Because  of  its  internal  weakness,  the  Dupuy  ministry  col- 
lapsed when  Jaures  sounded  the  attack,  and  tendered  its  resig- 
nation on  Nov.  25,  i893-724  But  it  was  not  the  Socialists  who 
stepped  into  Dupuy's  place. 

An  interesting  illustration  of  the  permanence  of  social  struc- 
ture which  enabled  the  same  aristocratic  or  wealthy  families  to 
remain  in  positions  of  power  and  affluence  though  kingdoms 
and  empires  might  rise  and  fall  and  republics  have  their  day 
was  the  choice  of  Jean  Casimir-Perier,  a  wealthy  capitalist  and 

194 


"THE  NEW  SPIRIT"  195 

grandson  of  Louis-Philippe's  famous  minister,  to  succeed 
Charles  Dupuy  as  head  of  the  cabinet,  Dec.  3,  i893.725  With 
a  homogeneous  Moderate  ministry,  Casimir-Perier  undertook 
to  stand  at  bay,  protecting  the  existing  capitalistic  regime 
against  socialist  onslaughts  and  at  the  same  time  defending  the 
anticlerical  legislation  of  the  Republic  against  Catholic  at- 
tacks.T2fl  A  series  of  anarchistic  exploits,  particularly  the  hurl- 
ing of  a  bomb  in  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  itself,727  gave  the  new  ministry  an  opportunity  to 
inaugurate  its  campaign  against  agitators,  call  themselves  what 
they  might,  who  menaced  the  social  order.  Four  drastic  bills, 
conferring  extraordinary  powers  upon  the  administrative  au- 
thorities for  the  swift  and  sure  repression  of  every  conspiracy 
against  property  or  life,  were  hastily  consented  to  by  the 
Chamber.728  As  the  Radicals  and  Socialists  with  one  accord 
protested  against  his  harsh  policy,  Casimir-Perier  tended  more 
and  more  to  look  toward  the  Right  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
in  hope  that  there  he  might  find  additional  support.  Perhaps 
with  the  aid  of  the  rallies  a  new  and  a  stronger  Moderate  major- 
ity might  be  built  up  as  a  bulwark  against  socialism  and  anarch- 
ism. But  to  gain  the  rallies'  votes  the  ministry  would  have 
to  make  certain  concessions  in  religious  matters. 

The  Casimir-Perier  ministry  made  its  offer  to  the  rallies 
by  the  mouth  of  Eugene  Spuller,  minister  of  public  education, 
who  had  been  the  friend  and  counsellor  of  the  great  Gambetta, 
and  who  was  the  brains  of  the  Moderate  or  Opportunist  party. 
Spuller's  much-quoted  speech  of  March  30,  1894,  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  Moderate  Republicans'  formal  response  to  the 
ralliemcnt  of  the  Catholics  to  the  Republic. 

In  effect,  Spuller  offered  a  truce  in  the  battle  against  clerical- 
ism if  the  clericals  would  join  in  a  crusade  "  against  all  fanat- 
icisms, whatever  they  be,  against  all  sectaries,  to  whatever  sect 
they  belong,"  i.  e.,  chiefly  against  Revolutionary  Socialism  and 
Anarchism.  Spuller's  words  created  enough  of  a  sensation  at 
the  time  to  warrant  the  quotation  of  a  few  sentences  here  : 

It  is  my  profound  conviction  that  after  twenty-five  years  of  exist- 
ence,  after  the  proofs   of   its   independent  vitality  and   power   of 


196  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

resistance  which  the  Republic  has  given,  this  struggle  [against  the 
Catholic  Church]  should,  if  not  cease,  at  any  rate  assume  a  different 
character.  I  maintain  that  the  Church  itself  is  changing,  that  it  is 
evolving,  despite  its  claim  of  immutability.  I  say  that  now,  instead 
of  serving  as  a  bond  for  the  parties  of  monarchism,  you  behold  the 
Church  rushing  to  the  front  [of  the  forces]  of  democracy.  I  say 
that  in  this  movement  the  Church  will  perhaps  drag  you,  you 
Republicans,  further  than  you  wish  to  go,  for,  if  you  do  not  take 
care,  it  will  recover  among  the  masses  the  influence  which  you  have 
lost. 

That  is  why,  gentlemen,  I  believe  that  nothing  must  be  abandoned 
of  our  old  traditions  in  our  incessant  battles  for  the  advantage  of 
secular  and  civil  society;  but  I  also  believe  that  it  is  necessary  that 
a  new  spirit  should  animate  this  democracy  and  those  who  repre- 
sent it.  ... 

This  new  spirit  is  simply  this :  instead  of  petty,  mischievous, 
vexatious  warfare  [interruptions  by  the  Extreme  Left].  .  .  .  This 
new  spirit  of  which  I  speak,  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  under  any 
pretext  it  should  be  a  spirit  of  feebleness,  of  condescension,  of  sur- 
render, of  abdication;  on  the  contrary,  I  say  that  it  should  be  a 
lofty  and  a  broad  spirit  of  tolerance,  of  intellectual  and  moral 
renovation  .  .  .  quite  different  from  that  which  has  hitherto  pre- 
vailed. ...  I  demand  that  we  be  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  tolerance. 
.  .  .  Tolerance  today,  tolerance  tomorrow  .  .  .  always;  tolerance. 
It  is  the  future  of  free  societies. 

We  can  have  no  other  if  we  genuinely  desire  that  the  Republic 
shall  inaugurate  in  this  country  the  reconciliation  of  all  Frenchmen, 
the  rallying  of  all  citizens  around  the  flag  of  la  patrie,  if  we  wish 
that  this  Republic  which  we  have  founded  shall  live  and  repose  on 
the  perfect  and  mutual  agreement  of  all  spirits,  of  all  hearts.729 

Spuller's  remarkable  speech  was  probably  motivated  not  only 
by  the  ardent  hope  of  uniting  the  forces  of  "  order "  and 
patriotism  in  the  Republic,  but  also  by  the  conviction  that  the 
Church  would  not  be  a  menace  to  the  Republicans  if  tolerated 
by  them.  In  his  interesting  book  on  The  Political  and  Social 
Evolution  of  the  Church,  a  reprint  of  articles  which  he  had 
written  during  the  critical  years  of  the  ralliement,  Spuller  dis- 
cusses the  liberal  forces  at  work  in  the  Church,  and  defends 
the  thesis  that  the  Catholic  conservatives  who  had  accepted  the 
Republic  would  prove  willing  to  help  support  conservatism, 
with  the  bourgeois  Republicans,  against  subversive  social  agita- 


"THE  NEW  SPIRIT"  197 

tion.  Spuller  was  thinking  merely  of  political  expediency; 
he  certainly  was  not  moved  by  any  sympathy  for  Catholicism. 
"If  philosophy,  if  free- thought,  have  ever  had  a  loyal  and 
convinced  champion,  it  is  myself.  .  .  .  Opportunist  I  have 
always  been  and  will  always  remain."  Such  was  his  own  pro- 
fession of  faith.  As  he  said,  he  was  "  emancipated  from  all 
positive  religion  "  and  the  cause  of  the  Church  was  not  his.730 

The  "  New  Spirit "  proclaimed  by  Spuller  did  not  mean  that 
the  rallies  would  be  permitted  to  enter  into  the  cabinet.  It 
was  enough  of  a  privilege  to  vote  for  the  ministry ;  to  ask  more 
would  have  been  presumptuous  of  these  novices.  Casimir- 
Perier  himself  took  pains  to  make  that  point  clear.  While  he 
solicited  the  support  of  all  "  fair-minded  men  "  (honnetes  gens) 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  social  order,  nevertheless  he  declared 
that  "  to  confide  the  republican  standard  to  them  (the  rallies), 
to  give  the  guardianship  of  our  constitution  to  them,  these 
neophytes,  would  be  a  grave  imprudence." 731  And  Spuller 
also  admitted,  subsequently,  that  "  it  never  entered  the  beads 
of  true  Republicans  to  go  and  seek  our  adversaries  in  order  to 
put  them  in  our  places.  .  .  .  We  are  not  likely,  after  twenty- 
four  years  [of  Republican  rule]  to  say  to  them :  '  The  place 
is  warm,  won't  you  be  so  good  as  to  take  it? '  "  732 

Even  though  the  New  Spirit  gave  promise  of  at  least  a 
temporary  respite  from  the  aggressive  anticlerical  campaign, 
the  Catholic  Republicans  or  rallies  could  not  entirely  relish 
the  bargain  that  was  offered.  To  be  sure,  they  were  more  than 
willing  to  join  a  crusade  against  Revolutionary  Socialism  as 
well  as  against  anarchistic  terrorism ;  but  those  who  shared 
de  Mun's  philosophy  of  -Social  Catholicism  soon  found  them- 
selves joining  with  the  Socialists  to  .defend  the  rights  of  labor 
against  the  Government. 

The  first  part  of  the  foregoing  assertion,  relative  to  the  readi- 
ness of  the  rallies  to  aid  Casimir-Perier  against  Revolution- 
ary Socialism,  was  beautifully  illustrated  in  a  debate  on  April 
30,  i894.733  The  most  eloquent  of  the  Socialist  orators,  Jean 
Jaures,  had  opened  fire  on  Casimir-Perier,  whom  he  accused  of 
forming  an  anti-Socialist  coalition  with  clericals  and  monarch- 


198  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

ists  and  of  regarding  the  Right  as,  "if  not  a  necessary  parl, 
at  least  an  ornament  of  the  Government's  majority."  Jaures 
simultaneously  attacked  the  rallies,  particularly  Count  Albert 
de  Mun,  whom  he  styled  a  "  Christian  Socialist "  and  whom 
he  accused  not  only  of  having  "endeavored  to  borrow  from 
socialism  all  that  you  could  in  order  to  restore  in  this  country 
the  influence  of  Christianity  as  constituted  in  the  Church  [to 
this  accusation  de  Mun  retorted,  "  Quite  the  contrary! "],  but 
also  of  having  accepted  the  Republic  only  at  the  bidding  of 
the  pope  and  in  order  to  combat  the  Republican  policy."  So- 
cial Catholic  writers  and  orators,  Jaures  went  on  to  say,  were 
quite  as  vigorous  as  the  Socialists  or  the  Anarchists  in  con- 
demning the  existing  capitalistic  exploitation  of  the  masses,  and 
quite  as  much  a  menace  to  "  the  social  order." 

Count  de  Mun's  reply,  delivered  on  the  spur  of  the  moment, 
was  one  of  his  most  brilliant  speeches,  considered  merely  as  a 
model  of  the  orator's  art.  In  substance,  it  was  a  violent  attack 
upon  socialism.  He  accused  the  Socialists  of  attacking  two 
fundamental  principles,  property  and  authority,  which  were 
absolutely  necessary  in  human  society.  He  traced  the  philo- 
sophical ancestry  of  socialism  back  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Encyclopedic,  of  Rousseau,  of  Diderot;  he  proved  that  at  least 
some  of  the  Socialists  were  preaching  the  necessity,  nay  the 
inevitability,  of  a  violent  social  revolution ;  and,  while  proudly 
pointing  to  his  own  record  of  unflagging  zeal  in  behalf  of 
tangible  social  reforms  during  the  past  twenty  years,  he  up- 
braided the  Socialists  for  retarding  real  social  reforms  by  teach- 
ing the  working  classes  to  look  for  an  unreal  Utopia  which 
nobody,  not  even  a  Socialist,  could  describe.  Let  de  Mun 
speak  in  his  own  words : 

Very  well.  With  such  doctrines  [social  revolution,  class  struggle, 
etc.}  do  you  know  what  you  are  doing?  I  say  it  with  the  accent 
of  a  sorrowful  conviction,  you  are  delaying,  you  are  retarding, 
perhaps  you  are  rendering  impossible  the  most  just,  the  most  neces- 
sary, the  most  urgent  social  reforms.  .  .  . 

Turning  to  Alexandre  Millerand,  who  had  interrupted  him, 
de  Mun  continued: 


"THE  NEW  SPIRIT"  199 

For  twenty  years  past  I  have  demanded,  here  in  this  tribune,  the 
most  precise  social  reforms;  it  is  not  my  fault  if  hardly  a  single 
one  of  them  has  been  achieved.  My  responsibility  is  absolutely 
cleared.  It  is  yours  that  is  in  question. 

You  teach  the  people  to  expect  nothing,  to  hope  for  nothing, 
from  the  progress  of  ideas,  of  institutions,  of  laws,  and  to  seek 
in  their  labor  organizations  not  the  means  of  defending  their  rights 
but  a  weapon  of  combat,  preparing  by  means  of  continual  violence  for 
civil  war.  You  display  before  their  eyes  the  ideal  prospect  of  a 
collectivist  society,  the  functioning  of  which  not  a  single  one  of  you 
can  explain.  .  .  . 

There  was  developing  in  this  country,  little  by  little,  an  immense 
movement  of  generous  pity  which  more  and  more  turned  the  living 
forces  and  the  intelligence  of  the  nation  toward  the  sufferers,  the 
weaklings,  life's  disinherited  children.  I  make  bold  to  say,  since 
you  ask  what  I  have  done,  that  I  have  borne  my  share  in  this  great 
movement  of  charitable  work  and  of  ideas.  [Approving  shouts  of 
"  Tres  bien!"  showed  that  other  members  of  the  Chamber  agreed.] 

The  need  of  justice  was  convincing  every  heart.  But  your  fear- 
inspiring  doctrines,  your  terrifying  deeds  of  violence,  will  check 
this  movement,  perhaps,  and  the  responsibility  will  be  yours.  I 
say  it  with  profound  conviction :  you  have  cruelly  betrayed  the 
cause  of  the  people. 

For  these  reasons  de  Mun  regarded  the  Socialist  party  as 
"  a  permanent  peril  to  public  security  "  and  promised  to  sup- 
port the  Government  in  combating1  Socialism,  overlooking 
differences  of  opinion  on  other  matters. 

Wrathfully  arising  from  the  Socialist  benches,  Alexandre 
Millerand  declared,  in  answer  to  de  Mun,  "  We  have  before 
our  eyes  a  Government  which  lives  by  the  support  of  a  Re- 
publican and  clerical  majority."  Turning  to  the  Government, 
he  warned  Casimir-Perier  that  the  ministry  must  choose  be- 
tween the  Left,  with  social  reform,  and  the  Right,  with  the 
support  of  "  the  Church  and  High  Finance." 

Casimir-Perier  refused  to  make  any  such  choice.  As  a  re- 
sult, when  the  vote  of  confidence  was  put,  he  was  opposed  by 
the  Socialists,  the  Radicals,  and  a  number  of  clericals,  who 
refused  to  sanction  his  policy  of  conciliation,  and  was  upheld 
by  de  Mun  and  other  rallies,  as  well  as  by  the  moderate  Re- 
publicans. 


200  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

The  economic  views  of  those  rallies  who  were  also  Social 
Catholics  made  it  impossible  to  preserve  such  an  alignment  of 
parties.  On  specific  economic  questions,  the  tendency  was  to- 
ward a  combination  of  these  rallies  with  the  Socialists  against 
the  Government,  for  the  Government  was  hostile  to  Catholic 
as  well  as  to  Socialist  ideas  of  labor  reform.  In  fact,  Jonnart, 
the  minister  of  public  works,  had  once  condemned  both  Social- 
ism and  Social  Catholicism  in  a  single  epigram :  "  M.  de  Mun 
would  like  to  lead  us  back  into  the  middle  ages ;  his  friends  of 
the  Extreme  Left  dream  of  taking  us  back  into  primitive  so- 
ciety." 734 

The  following  incident  will  make  this  point  clearer.  On  May 
22,  1894,  Jonnart  was  interpellated  by  the  Chamber  on  the 
question  of  his  refusal  to  permit  the  employees  of  the  national 
railways  to  participate  in  a  trade-union  congress.  Jonnart 
justified  his  repressive  policy  by  declaring  that  "  the  formation 
of  trade  unions  by  the  employees  of  the  state  is  the  destruction 
of  all  discipline  and  of  all  administration."  735 

This  claim  no  sincere  Social  Catholic  could  admit,  since  the 
desirability  of  labor  organization  was  a  cardinal  principle  of 
Social  Catholicism.  Therefore,  a  group  of  Catholics,  among 
whom  de  Mun  was  the  most  conspicuous,  voted  against  the 
Government  and  with  the  Socialists  on  this  issue.  Thus  for 
a  moment  Socialists  and  Social  Catholic  rallies  found  them- 
selves uniting  against  the  Government. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  should  be  remarked  that  a  few  of  the 
rallies  joined  with  men  like  Leon  Say,  Deschanel,  Barthou  and 
the  opponents  of  social  legislation  in  general  in  supporting  the 
Government.736  This  conservative  or,  more  accurately  speak- 
ing, individualist,  wing  of  the  Republican  Right  will  bear 
watching,  for  it  will  be  a  source  of  great  weakness  to  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  after  1902. 

The  Casimir-Perier  ministry  was  overthrown  by  the  com- 
bined votes  of  Socialists,  Radicals,  and  Social  Catholic  rallies. 
But  a  new  ministry  representing  any  or  all  of  these  groups 
was  not  possible  at  that  time.  President  Carnot  gave  the 
Radicals  an  opportunity  to  form  a  cabinet,  but  they  found  the 


"THE  NEW  SPIRIT"  2OI 

task  too  great  for  their  strength.737  Consequently  the  cabinet 
crisis  resulted  in  merely  a  change  of  persons,  not  of  principles, 
and  Moderate  Opportunism  remained  in  power,  with  Charles 
Dupuy  in  place  of  Casimir-Perier.  The  new  ministry,  like 
the  old,  was  pledged  to  defend  the  existing  economic  and  re- 
ligious order  against  Socialists  and  clericals.738 

Possibly  these  details  regarding  the  politics  of  the  early 
'nineties  are  wearisome,  and  they  may  seem  irrelevant  to  the 
subject  of  this  monograph,  but  they  show  how  fluid  the  political 
situation  was  at  this  time.  The  Social  Catholic  rallies  like  de 
Mun  were  alternately  voting  with  the  Center  against  the  So- 
cialists and  with  the  Socialists  against  the  Center.  The  con- 
fusion arose  from  the  fact  that  there  were  two  fundamental 
and  conflicting  lines  of  division  in  the  Chamber.  The  Social 
Catholic  rallies  were  favorable  to  social  legislation,  especially 
legislation  tending  toward  the  autonomous  organization  of  in- 
dustry, and  were  opposed  to  anticlerical  legislation.  The 
Center  was  opposed  to  social  legislation  and  inclined  to  com- 
promise on  anticlerical  legislation.  The  Radicals  were  inclined 
to  compromise  on  social  legislation,  but  were  zealously  favor- 
able to  anticlerical  legislation.  The  Socialists  were  favorable 
to  both. 

The  Opportunists  or  Moderates  of  the  Center,  intuitively 
perceiving  that  they  could  not  permanently  stand  alone,  against 
rallies,  Radicals,  and  Socialists  alike,  made  many  false  starts, 
sometimes  leaning  to  the  Left  and  sometimes  seeming  to  incline 
toward  the  Riglht.  Upon  their  action  much  depended ;  indeed, 
their  ultimate  decision  is  the  key  to  the  subsequent  political 
history  of  France. 

If  the  Center  should  seek  support  from  the  rallies  it  would 
have  to  enact  labor  laws  and  favor  labor  organization,  while 
declaring  a  truce  on  the  religious  question.  The  "  New  Spirit  " 
would  come  into  its  own.  Such  an  alliance  would  enable  the 
Social  Catholic  rallies  to  devote  more  attention  to  constructive 
social  reform  and  less  'to  negative  defense  of  religious  inter- 
ests. If,  on  the  other  hand,  tihe  Center  sought  support  from 
the  Left,  it  would  have  to  make  some  concessions  to  state 


202  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

socialism  unless  it  could  persuade  the  Extreme  Left  to  devote 
most  of  its  attention  to  anticlerical  legislation.  In  this  latter 
case,  the  Social  Catholic  rallies  would  be  foredoomed  to  a 
position  of  negation  and  almost  of  impotence,  since  they  would 
be  ever  on  the  defensive  in  religious  matters  and  would  be 
unable  to  sympathize  with  state-socialistic  legislation  in  eco- 
nomic matters;  consequently  they  would  be  free  to  develop 
their  own  program  but  would  lack  the  power  to  realize  it. 

Because  so  much  depended  upon  the  ultimate  alignment  of 
tlhe  parties,  and  incidentally  because  there  is  no  better  way  of 
depicting  the  spirit  and  temper  of  the  times  out  of  which  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  grew,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  follow 
a  little  further  the  story  of  the  Center's  hesitations  and  false 
starts,  and  the  resulting  evolution  of  the  other  parties. 

After  several  cabinets  had  attempted  to  maintain  their  at- 
titude of  opposition  to  both  Right  and  Left,  a  move  was 
made  in  1895  toward  a  combination  of  Center  and  Left.  In 
October  of  that  year  President  Faure  asked  Leon  Bourgeois, 
a  member  of  the  Radical  group,  to  try  his  hand  at  forming  a 
cabinet.  By  adroitly  drawing  into  his  Government,  along  with 
his  own  Radical  followers,  several  more  moderate  men,  notably 
Ribot  and  Poincare,  Bourgeois  succeeded  in  patching  together 
a  precarious  majority  which  he  described  as  being  "  inde- 
pendent of  the  adversaries  of  the  Republic  and  of  those  who 
have  accepted  the  form  of  our  institutions  without  accepting 
their  spirit  and  their  political  and  social  consequences  [one 
can  almost  see  the  rallies  writhing  under  this  taunt]  ;  inde- 
pendent likewise  of  those  who  believe  that  progress  can  come 
of  the  class  struggle  and  of  violence."  739 

The  Bourgeois  cabinet,  brief  as  was  its  duration  (less  than 
six  months),  gave  the  country  its  first  taste  of  the  new  Rad- 
icalism, which  consisted  essentially  of  anticlericalism  tinged 
with  socialism,  but  no  more  than  tinged.  The  former  quality 
was  seen  in  the  Government's  proposal  to  enact  a  law  against 
the  monastic  orders ;  the  latter  in  its  ineffective  advocacy  of 
progressive  inheritance  and  income  taxes,  and  in  the  reopen- 
ing of  the  Paris  Labor  Exchange,  which  had  been  closed  by  the 


"  THE  NEW  SPIRIT  "  203 

Moderate  Dupuy.  The  docility  of  the  Socialists  during  the 
Radical  administration  was  a  significant  portent.740 

When  the  Radical  Ministry  was  at  length  forced  out  of  of- 
fice, mainly  by  the  opposition  encountered  in  the  Senate,  the 
New  Spirit  once  more  resumed  its  sway,  and  for  more  than 
two  years,  from  April  29,  1896,  to  June  15,  1898,  the  tendency 
was  toward  a  coalition  of  Center  and  rallies.  If  the  new  presi- 
dent of  the  council,  Jules  Meline,  a  Moderate,  tended  to  con- 
ciliate the  rallies,  the  Radicals  had  only  themselves  to  blame, 
for  they  had  refused  his  invitation  to  enter  the  cabinet.  And 
reasons  of  political  necessity  made  it  compulsory  for  Meline  to 
secure  a  safe  majority  in  the  Chamber  by  conciliating  either 
the  Left  or  the  Right. 

Meline's  Moderate  Government,  then,  showed  itself  distinctly 
friendly  toward  the  rallies.  Meline  might  almost  have  been 
suspected  of  clericalism,  had  his  personal  convictions  not  been 
so  well  known  as  to  make  such  a  suspicion  absurd.  No  clerical 
could  have  attacked  the  anticlericalism  of  the  Radicals  more 
vigorously.  For  example,  in  October,  1897,  Meline  declared: 

We  show  a  sincere  respect  for  religion,  and  that  is  what  most 
offends  a  certain  party  which  regards  religion  as  a  relic  of  servitude, 
which  should  be  extirpated.  Instead  of  war,  we  seek  pacification 
in  the  domain  of  religion.  Does  not  history  teach  us  that  religious 
quarrels  are  always  a  cause  of  weakness,  in  internal  as  well  as  in 
foreign  affairs?741 

Rebuking  the  Radicals  for  "  treating  as  monarchists  all 
those  who  are  not  republicans  of  yesterday,  and  for  excom- 
municating those  whom  they  contemptuously  call  rallies,"  he 
exclaimed : 

As  though  after  twenty-seven  years  of  the  Republic,  it  was  not  per- 
missible to  open  our  ranks  to  sincere  and  loyal  men,  like  our  col- 
league the  Count  d' Alsace,  whose  every  vote,  without  an  exception, 
since  the  beginning  of  the  legislature,  has  been  as  republican  as 
ours !  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  the  support  of  such  men  is  an 
honor  to  the  Government,  and  that  they  lend  it  greater  strength 
than  certain  revolutionary  collectivists  whose  names  I  need  not 
mention.742 


204  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

The  Count  d' Alsace,  to  whom  Meline  referred,  had  recently 
led  about  forty  rallies  into  the  Progressist  fold  where  they  might 
prove  their  sincere  republicanism  .without  becoming  anti- 
clerical.743 Obviously  Meline  was  bidding,  quite  frankly,  for 
further  support  from  this  quarter. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  features  of  Meline's  administra- 
tion was  the  enactment  of  several  measures  of  social  legisla- 
tion. The  policy  of  the  Government  was  the  policy  of  which 
de  Mun  had  long  been  the  foremost  champion,  viz.  the  policy 
of  adopting  tangible,  conciliatory  reforms  for  the  amelioration 
of  the  condition  of  the  laboring  classes,  while  opposing  Revo- 
lutionary Socialism. 

To  Meline  the  French  workingmen  owed  their  first  Work- 
ingmen's  Accident  Compensation  Law  (1898).  To  Meline's 
administration  the  mutual  aid  societies  of  France  owed  the 
great  "  charter  of  mutualism,"  the  law  of  1898.  Old-Age 
Pensions,  which  he  promised,744  and  the  further  restriction  of 
child  labor,  and  regulation  of  the  employment  of  women  and 
young  persons,  were  among  the  other  reforms  proposed,  but 
which  could  not  be  carried  through  the  legislature.745  Nor  was 
de  Mun's  demand  granted,  that  France  should  take  the  initiative 
in  convoking  an  international  congress  for  social  legislation.748 

In  making  this  suggestion,  it  may  not  be  altogether  irrelevant 
to  add,  the  Catholic  Social  orator  again  reproached  the  Social- 
ists for  preventing  immediate  reforms  while  they  dreamed  of 
Utopias.  But,  and  this  is  the  important  point,  he  offered  to  co- 
operate with  the  Socialists,  if  they  were  willing,  in  promoting 
labor  legislation.  The  Socialist  Jules  Guesde  replied  by  calling 
de  Mun  and  his  friends  the  enfants  perdus  of  Socialism,  whom 
it  was  not  even  worth  while  to  "  take  the  trouble  of  combat- 
ing," since  they  were  really  helping  "  to  destroy  the  social 
order  at  the  very  moment  when  they  believe  they  are  flocking 
to  its  rescue."  747 

It  requires  no  very  profound  reflection  to  understand  why 
the  New  Spirit,  as  embodied  by  the  Meline  Ministry  of  1896- 
1898,  was  predestined  to  return  once  more  to  the  realm  of 
departed  spirits,  after  its  brief  incarnation.  Three  major  rea- 


"THE  NEW  SPIRIT"  205 

sons  might  'be  assigned:  (i)  the  attitude  of  the  Socialists; 
(2)  the  revival  of  anticlericalism  in  the  Dreyfus  affair;  (3) 
the  quarrels  among  the  rallies. 

Consider  first  the  attitude  of  the  Socialists.  During  the 
Radical  administration  of  Leon  Bourgeois,  from  Nov.  I,  1895, 
to  April  23,  1896,  they  had  been  unwontedly  mild;  they  had 
been  sincerely  anxious  to  avoid  any  incident  which  might 
overthrow  the  Ministry,  although  the  Ministry  was,  after  all, 
a  "  bourgeois "  Ministry  and  had  explicitly  repudiated  col- 
lectivism. One  month  after  the  replacement  of  Bourgeois  by 
Meline,  a  great  Socialist  gathering  was  held  at  Saint-Mande.748 
Millerand,  Jaures,  Edouard  Vaillant,  Jules  Guesde, —  all  were 
there.  With  the  applause  and  consent  of  his  associates,  Alex- 
andre  Millerand  there  formulated  a  program  on  which  all  the 
various  Socialist  factions  could  agree,  in  his  opinion.  The 
program  included  three  essential  points:  (i)  intervention  of 
the  State  to  convert  from  capitalistic  into  national  property 
the  different  categories  of  the  means  of  production  and  ex- 
change in  proportion  as  they  become  ripe  for  social  appropria- 
tion; (2)  capture  of  the  Government  through  universal  suf- 
frage; (3)  international  understanding  among  the  workers.749 

In  relation  to  the  development  of  French  Social  Catholicism, 
Millerand's  famous  Saint-Mande  speech  is  interesting  in  two 
respects.  In  the  first  place,  the  speaker  took  special  pains  to 
flout  Social  Catholicism,  calling  it  "  Christian  Socialism,  which 
is  only  a  sham  Socialism,  since,  far  from  working  to  set  men 
free,  it  works  only  for  the  rule  and  domination  of  imperilled 
theocracy."  In  the  second  place,  Millerand  took  such  care  to 
repudiate  violence  and  bloody  revolution,  and  to  avoid  em- 
phasizing the  "  class  struggle,"  and  to  reconcile  "  International- 
ism "  with  patriotism,  that  he  started  parliamentary  socialism 
well  on  the  road  towards  the  status  of  a  respectable  bourgeois 
party.  If  the  "  Social  Revolution,"  the  very  thought  of  which 
had  struck  terror  into  the  hearts  of  order-loving  bourgeois, 
simply  meant  the  gradual  nationalization,  one  by  one,  of 
certain  great  commercial  and  industrial  enterprises  as  they 
became  "  ripe,"  the  "  menace  of  socialism  "  would  vanish,  or 


206 

at  least  be  lost  in  the  dim  purple  vapors  of  the  distant  horizon. 
And  if  the  Socialists,  instead  of  fomenting  strikes,  appealing 
to  class  hatred,  and  coquetting  with  "  direct  action,"  intended 
henceforth  to  exert  themselves  principally  in  gaining  votes  and 
winning  parliamentary  elections,  why  should  a  coalition  of 
Socialists,  Radicals,  and  even  Moderates  be  inconceivable? 

Certain  of  the  Socialists  themselves  undoubtedly  had  this 
very  possibility  in  mind.  Basly,  for  example,  on  Sept.  6, 
1896,  declared:  "It  would  be  better  to  devote  our  attention 
to  giving  the  country  a  Radical  Ministry  than  to  preaching 
doctrines  which  will  appear  fantastic  even  in  the  year  2700."  75° 
In  other  words,  the  Socialists  were  beginning  to  pluck  at  the 
sleeve  of  the  middle-class  Republicans,  who  seemed  too  much 
inclined  to  walk  arm  in  arm  with  the  rallies. 

Nor  should  it  be  overlooked  that  Millerand  emphasized  pre- 
cisely that  part  of  the  Socialist  program  which  was  least  ac- 
ceptable to  Social  Catholics.  Had  he  proposed  to  devote  atten- 
tion to  reducing  the  working-day,  or  to  building  up  labor  organ- 
ization, or  to  authorizing  the  fixation  of  a  minimum  wage 
in  each  industry,  de  Mun  and  his  friends  might  have  given 
valuable  help.  But  government-ownership  of  public  utilities 
and  of  "  ripe  "  industries  was  considered  by  the  Social  Cath- 
olics to  be  of  no  real  advantage  to  the  workingman,  dangerous 
to  organized  labor  and  destructive  of  liberty. 

While  the  Socialists,  under  Millerand's  guidance,  were  pre- 
paring themselves  for  a  coalition  with  the  Radicals,  certain 
clericals  were  engaging  in  the  antisemitic  campaign  which  led 
straight  to  the  Dreyfus  Affair  and  provoked  an  anticlerical 
counter-movement.  This  was  the  second  of  the  reasons  men- 
tioned in  an  earlier  paragraph,  for  the  failure  of  the  New 
Spirit  and  the  formation  of  an  alliance  between  bourgeois  anti- 
clericals  and  Socialists. 

For  several  years  past,  a  savage  antisemitic  campaign  had 
been  conducted  by  a  group  of  journalists  and  politicians  who 
apparently  believed  that  the  best  way  to  defend  Catholicism 
was  to  assail  Judaism.  Since  1892  Edouard  Drumont's  flam- 
boyant newspaper,  La  Libre  Parole,  had  been  engaged  in  stir- 


"THE  NEW  SPIRIT"  207 

ring  up  race-hatred,  denouncing  the  Jews  as  cruel  capitalists, 
as  treacherous  enemies  of  national  patriotism,  as  corrupt  poli- 
ticians. 

The  charge  which  the  antisemites  constantly  repeated  was 
that  a  clique  of  Jewish  financiers  was  intriguing  with  venial 
politicians  to  dominate  the  Republican  government,  to  honey- 
comb the  army,  to  ruin  the  nation,  and  to  oppress  the  masses. 
A  fair  specimen  of  antisemitic  literature  may  be  found  in 
Paul  Lapeyre's  book  on  Social  Catholicism.75*  As  a  cure  for 
"  the  Jewish  pest," —  that  *'  devouring  canker," —  he  prescribes 
the  total  expulsion  of  the  Jews  and  their  transportation  to  some 
"  fertile  but  desert  country  "  where  they  would  have  to  "  re- 
form their  habits  or  die  of  want."  The  "  modern  Jews,"  he 
says,  "  are  descendents  of  those  who  crucified  Jesus." 

Or  one  may  turn  to  the  pages  of  another  Catholic  writer,  the 
Marquis  de  La  Tour  du  Pin,  who  in  an  article  published  in 
1898  proposed  this  program:  "  (i)  Treat  the  Jews  as  aliens, 
and  .dangerous  aliens;  (2)  recognize  and  forswear  all  the 
philosophical,  political,  and  economic  errors  with  which  they 
have  poisoned  us;  (3)  reconstitute  in  the  economic  as  well  as 
in  the  political  order  the  organs  of  our  own  life,  which  will 
render  us  independent  of  them  and  masters  of  our  own 
house."  752 

Echoes  of  the  antisemitic  campaign  soon  reached  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies.  For  example,  Viscount  d'Hugues,  a  clerical 
deputy,  in  1894  caused  a  sensation  in  the  Chamber  by  claiming 
to  have  in  his  possession  proof  positive  that  the  great  Jewish 
financier  Rothschild  had  given  money  to  anarchistic  agitators 
in  order  that  they  might  disorganize  and  disgrace  the  labor 
movement.753 

"  Juvuerie"  (Judaism)  and  "  High  Finance  "  were  almost  in- 
variably coupled  together  in  denunciation  by  clerical  dema- 
gogues. The  revelation  of  outrageous  financial  irregularities 
in  the  Panama  Canal  enterprise,  in  which  Jewish  bankers  and 
Republican  deputies  were  concerned,  furnished  new  grist  to 
the  antisemitic  mill,  and  seemed  to  lend  some  justification  to 
the  charges  of  the  agitators.78* 


208  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

The  economic  aspect  of  antisemitism  as  a  crusade  against 
immoral  "  high  finance  "  appealed  irresistibly  to  the  so-called 
Christian  Democrats,  a  school  of  ardent  young  priests,  journal- 
ists, and  politicians,  who  most  vehemently  championed  democ- 
racy, political  and  social.  At  their  congress  at  Lyons,  in  1895, 
these  Christian  Democrats  enthusiastically  elected  as  their 
honorary  president  one  of  the  most  aggressive  antisemites, 
Drumont.  And  one  of  the  speakers  at  the  congress,  Gayraud, 
extravagantly  demanded  "  the  expulsion  of  all  the  social  ex- 
crements, and  notably  of  the  Jewish  excrement."  755 

This  frenzied  antisemitic  campaign  led  straight  into  the  his- 
toric "  Dreyfus  Affair."  75e  In  the  year  1894-1895  an  obscure 
Jewish  captain  of  artillery,  Alfred  Dreyfus  by  name,  had  been 
convicted  as  a  spy  and  a  traitor  and  deported  to  Devil's  Island. 
Suspecting  that  injustice  had  been  done,  several  Jews,  includ- 
ing Joseph  Reinach,  Bernard  Lazare,  and  the  accused  man's 
own  brother,  inaugurated  a  campaign  to  "  revise  "  the  penal 
sentence.  Several  Protestants, —  Scheurer-Kestner,  Ranc,  and 
Gabriel  Monod, —  likewise  rallied  to  the  defense  of  the  Jewish 
officer.  And  Emile  Zola's  historic  letter,  "  J' accuse"  published 
in  a  Parisian  journal,  dramatically  charged  the  military  au- 
thorities with  having  committed  a  crime  against  Dreyfus.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  antisemitic  Christian  Democrats,  the  mon- 
archists, and  many  patriotic  ex-officers  like  de  Mun,  stoutly 
maintained  that  the  honor  and  patriotism  of  the  army  were  at 
stake,  and  that  traitors  such  as  Dreyfus  well  deserved  condign 
punishment.  It  remained  only  for  the  anticlerical  Republicans 
to  make  of  the  Dreyfus  controversy  a  momentous  political 
and  religious  issue,  in  which  Jews,  Protestants,  Free-Thinkers, 
Radicals,  Opportunists,  and  Socialists  would  unite  in  accusing 
the  clericals  of  religious  intolerance,  of  conspiracy  against  the 
Republic,  and  of  shameful  perversion  of  justice. 

Had  the  antisemitic  agitation  been  more  temperate  in  past 
years,  the  contention  of  the  pro-Dreyfus  party,  that  Dreyfus 
had  been  made  the  victim  of  an  antisemitic  plot,  might  have 
lacked  plausibility.  As  it  was,  the  two-edged  sword  of  re- 
ligious intolerance,  which  the  antisemites  themselves  had  forged, 


"THE  NEW  SPIRIT" 

was  now  effectively  turned  against  them.  Once  more  clerical- 
ism was  "  the  enemy  "  and  Socialists  were  ready  to  join  with 
middle-class  anticlericals  in  defending  the  Republic.757 

The  Dreyfus  Affair,  then,  was  the  second  of  the  circum- 
stances which  we  have  indicated  as  reasons  for  the  failure  of 
the  New  Spirit.  At  first  the  president  of  the  council,  Meline, 
was  inclined  to  assert  "  there  is  no  Dreyfus  Affair."  758  He 
insisted  that  clericalism  was  not  a  real  menace  to  the  Re- 
public, but  only  a  scare-crow  rigged  up  by  the  Radicals  for 
the  purposes  of  party  politics.  "  If  clericalism  did  not  ex- 
ist," he  declared,  "  you  would  invent  it."  759  Meline's  attitude 
was  almost  cynical.  He  said : 

Clericalism  has  become  the  great  electoral  platform  of  the  Radical 
party.  It  is,  for  that  matter,  the  old  tactics,  the  well-known  tactics 
of  the  party  [to  denounce  clericalism].  Every  time  the  Radical  party 
finds  itself  in  a  tight  place  and  feels  itself  squeezed  too  uncomfort- 
ably by  the  Socialists,  it  lugs  out  the  specter  of  clericalism  to  create  a 
diversion  and  to  restore  order  among  its  routed  troops.  The 
manoeuvre  is  very  convenient  and  makes  it  unnecessary  to  have  a 
program.760 

"  Specter  "  or  reality  as  it  might  be,  "  clericalism  "  became  once 
more  the  issue  of  the  day  with  the  advent  of  the  Dreyfus  Af- 
fair, and  the  New  Spirit  of  tolerance  took  its  departure  in 
1898. 

As  a  third  cause  of  the  New  Spirit's  failure,  the  quarrels 
among  the  rallies  have  been  mentioned,  but  not  explained. 
That  the  rallies  or  Catholic  Republicans  continued  to  be  as- 
sailed by  the  monarchists  was  hard  enough,  but  that  they,  the 
rallies,  should  exhaust  their  strength  and  fritter  away  their 
energy  by  combating  each  other  was  positively  ruinous. 
The  trouble  arose  in  this  wise.  The  energetic  Assumptionist 
Fathers,  who  had  already  established  a  very  influential  journal, 
the  Croix,  with  wide-spread  provincial  branches,  created  in 
1895  an  agency  called  the  "  Justice-Equality  Office  "  (Secre- 
tariat Justice-Egalite) ,761  This  agency  speedily  developed  into 
a  committee,  with  far-reaching  ramifications,  devoted  to  the 
most  vigorous  kind  of  politico-religious  propaganda,  fiercely 


210  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

brandishing  the  sword,  or  rather  the  pen,  against  the  Free 
Masons,  Free-Thinkers,  and  Jews,  who  were  accused  of  per- 
secuting the  Catholic  Church.  The  Justice  Equality  commit- 
tee's policy  was  so  strenuous  that  even  mildly  anticlerical  Re- 
publicans would  be  antagonized.  It  was  the  kind  of  an  organ- 
ization to  which  the  Radicals  could  point  the  accusing  finger 
when  they  cried,  "  Le  clericalisme,  voila  I'ennemi!" 

On  the  other  hand,  there  was  the  Christian  Democratic 
movement,  already  mentioned.  Of  the  Christian  Democrats, 
little  need  be  said  in  this  place,  save  that  with  the  unrestrained 
enthusiasm  of  young  and  altruistic  men  they  made  of  democ- 
racy almost  a  dogma;  that  by  their  whirlwind  campaigns  for 
very  radical  social  reform,  as  well  as  by  their  quasi-religious 
faith  in  democracy,  they  flustered  and  angered  the  more  con- 
servative Catholic  Republicans;  and  that  their  furious  anti- 
semitism  furnished  the  anticlericals  with  splendid  campaign 
material. 

Another  cross-current  among  the  rallies  was  created  by  the 
group  which  followed  the  Count  of  Alsace  into  the  Progressist 
camp  and  sought  to  draw  other  Catholic  Republicans  along  with 
them,  thinking  it  better  to  pursue  a  policy  of  "  peaceful  pene- 
tration "  than  of  unremitting  hostility  toward  the  Republican 
majority  in  the  Chamber.  Their  strategy  much  resembled  that 
later  employed  by  Piou,  in  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  ex- 
cept that  Piou  asked  all  fair-minded  Republicans  to  rally  round 
the  standard  which  he  himself  had  raised,  whereas  the  Count 
of  Alsace  asked  the  Catholics  to  follow  the  banner  of  an  exist- 
ing Republican  group. 

Had  the  Catholics  who  accepted  the  Republic  gradually 
drifted  apart  and  filtered  into  the  various  Republican  groups, 
it  is  conceivable  that  the  clerical  issue  might  have  disappeared. 
But  events  so  shaped  themselves  that  while  the  most  moderate, 
conciliatory  element  became  Progressist,  the  remaining  ele- 
ments, each  strongly  determined  to  follow  out  its  own  par- 
ticular aim  —  antisemitism,  monarchism,  clericalism,  militarism, 
or  what  not, —  were  thrown  together  in  confusion,  much  as 
when  several  swiftly  running  currents  in  a  turbulent  river 


"THE  NEW  SPIRIT"  211 

suddenly  rush  together  in  swirling,  boiling,  eddying  tumult. 

That  the  various  Catholic  currents  were  tending  to  con- 
verge, of  their  own  accord,  was  shown  by  the  convocation  of 
a  Catholic  Congress  in  1896  and  by  the  creation  of  a  Federa- 
tion in  1897  to  promote  Catholic  interests  in  the  elections  of 
1898.  The  managing  committee  of  the  Federation  included 
two  representatives  of  each  of  seven  important  Catholic 
groups:  (i)  the  Justice-Equality  committee,  (2)  the  Young 
Men's  Catholic  Association,762  (3)  the  Catholic  Committee,  (an 
off -shoot  of  the  Chesnelong  Committee  of  Religious  De- 
fense),783 (4)  Lamy  and  his  followers,76*  (5)  the  National 
Union,  (6)  the  Union  of  Commerce  and  Industry,  and  (7) 
the  Christian  Democrats.765  For  its  program,  the  Federation 
adopted  three  cardinal  principles :  acceptance  of  the  republican 
constitution,  reform  of  anti-Catholic  laws  in  so  far  as  they 
offended  liberty  and  justice  (droit  commun),  and  sympathetic 
cooperation  with  all  lovers  of  liberty  and  justice.766 

The  Dreyfus  Affair  in  1897  and  1898  accentuated  this  move- 
ment of  union  and  at  the  same  time  threw  it  into  confusion. 
While  the  coalition  of  Jews,  Protestants,  anticlericals,  and 
antimilitarists  supporting  Dreyfus  caused  the  various  Catholic 
factions  to  huddle  together  in  opposition,  feeling  that  the  pro- 
Dreyfus  coalition  was  really  anti-Catholic,  at  the  same  time 
the  excitement  caused  each  Catholic  faction  to  become  more 
extreme  in  its  particular  direction.  The  Christian  Democrats 
became  more  antisemitic,  the  Justice-Equality  committee  more 
militaotly  clerical,  and  so  on.  Harsher  discord  rather  than 
closer  unity  was  the  result.  Worst  of  all  for  the  clerical  cause, 
it  led  the  Catholic  Republicans  to  accept,  in  some  measure,  the 
support  of  clerical  monarchists  who  like  Paul  de  Cassagnac 
alluringly  pictured  the  advantages  of  Catholic  political  solidar- 
ity. The  defenders  of  "  Republicanism  "  and  denouncers  of 
"  clericalism  "  could  ask  nothing  better.  Here  was  proof  that 
the  clericals  were  foes  of  the  Republic. 

Entering  the  electoral  contest  of  1898  with  their  unwieldy 
Federation,  the  Catholic  groups  manoeuvred  so  clumsily  that 
their  more  agile  antagonists,  the  Radicals  and  Socialists,  easily 


212  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

carried  off  the  victory.  On  the  first  ballot,  where  no  strategy 
was  required  and  each  party  simply  voted  for  its  own  candi- 
dates, the  rallies  proved  stronger  than  the  Socialists,  for  the 
former  elected  31  deputies,767  the  latter  only  26;  and  the  Mod- 
erate Republicans  (now  generally  styled  the  Progressists768) 
had  182  seats  as  against  the  143  of  the  Radicals  and  Socialists, 
and  the  77  of  the  various  conservative  groups  (rallies,  National- 
ists, and  Conservatists  or  monarchists).  The  disciples  of  the 
New  Spirit  might  well  have  been  pleased  with  the  first  ballot ; 
the  Government  would  be  stronger  than  before. 

But  two  weeks  later,  when  the  second  ballot  was  taken  in 
the  181  constituencies  where  no  candidate  had  received  an 
absolute  majority,  and  when  it  was  necessary  to  combine  with 
other  parties  or  be  lost,  the  unwieldiness  of  the  Federation  be- 
came painfully  apparent.  Of  the  181  seats  in  dispute,  the 
Catholic  groups  of  the  Right  gained  only  17,  the  Progressist 
Republicans  77,  while  the  Radicals  and  Socialists  by  their  skil- 
ful combinations  won  no  fewer  than  92.769 

The  second  ballot  thus  reversed  the  effect  of  the  first.  In 
the  new  Chamber  the  Extreme  Left,  including  57  So<*;alists,770 
74  Socialist-Radicals,  and  104  Radicals,  was  so  nearly  equal  in 
size  to  the  ministerial  party,  the  Progressist  Republicans,  with 
their  254  votes,  that  the  ministry  would  certainly  be  compelled 
to  rely  pretty  definitely  upon  outside  support  from  the  Right, 
or  else  to  make  terms  with  the  Radicals.  As  we  shall  see, 
presently,  the  latter  course  was  taken,  and  the  left  wing  of  the 
Progressist  group  associated  itself  with  the  Extreme  Left  to 
form  a  ministerial  majority  for  Waldeck-Rousseau,  and  to 
exorcise  the  New  Spirit. 

Just  a  word  of  explanation  may  be  necessary  to  show  clearly 
how  the  Catholics  defeated  themselves  on  the  second  ballot  in 
the  elections  of  1898  and  placed  the  New  Spirit  in  so  sorry  a 
predicament.  Where  the  clerical  rallies  pursued  a  policy  of 
whole-hearted  cooperation  with  the  more  moderate  Republicans, 
such  as  had  felt  the  touch  of  the  New  Spirit,  they  were  bril- 
liantly successful.  For  example,  in  the  Socialist  stronghold  of 
Roubaix, —  Jules  Guesde's  beloved  "  Holy  City  "  of  Socialism, 


"  THE  NEW  SPIRIT  "  213 

—  a  young  Republican  Catholic  by  the  name  of  Eugene  Motte 
(who  was  one  of  the  group  that  subsequently  founded  the  Pop- 
ular Liberal  Party)  took  great  care  to  affirm  his  sincere  re- 
publicanism ;  from  every  campaign  mass-meeting  he  sent  formal 
greetings  to  the  president  of  the  Republic ;  and  the  result  was 
that  he  wrested  the  seat,  with  an  overwhelming  majority,  from 
one  of  the  strongest  Socialist  leaders.771  Similarly  in  the  dis- 
trict of  Carmaux  the  rallie  Marquis  de  Solages  (likewise  a 
member-to-be  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party),  ousted  the  So- 
cialist Jean  Jaures  from  his  seat.772  In  some  cases,  also,  where 
a  rallie  was  competing  with  a  Progressist  and  a  Radical,  he 
withdrew  on  the  second  ballot  and  threw  his  votes  to  the  Prog- 
ressist in  order  that  the  Radical  might  not  win.773  Had  these 
tactics  been  universally  followed,  the  sincerely  Republican 
rallies  and  the  New  Spirit  Progressists  would  have  been 
strongly  dominant  in  the  new  Chamber. 

But  many  New  Spirit  Progressists, —  if  the  term  may  be 
used  for  those  Progressists  who  were  inclined  to  conciliate 
the  Church, —  who  would  otherwise  have  been  glad  to  cast  their 
votes  for  rallies  on  the  second  ballot,  were  probably  prevented 
from  so  doing  by  the  knowledge  that  the  Catholic  Federation 
comprised  what  they  regarded  as  fanatically  clerical  and  ill- 
disguised  monarchist  elements  as  well  as  moderate  Republican 
elements.  And,  futhermore,  in  a  number  of  cases,  the  extrem- 
ist elements  in  the  Federation  assisted  Radicals  to  defeat  Mod- 
erate Republicans.  This  paradoxical  manoeuvre  on  the  part 
of  the  clerical  extremists  was  inspired  by  the  mistaken  idea 
that  the  election  of  Radicals  would  lead  to  such  excesses  of 
anticlericalism  that  there  would  soon  appear  an  irresistible 
national  revulsion  of  feeling  against  Radicalism  and  perhaps 
even  against  Republicanism.  It  was  said  that  the  best  way  to 
discredit  the  Radicals  was  to  vote  for  them ! 

Concrete  instances  are  eloquent.  At  Dole,  in  the  Jura, 
1,700  strongly  clerical  voters  held  the  balance  between  Jean 
Baptiste  Bourgeois,  a  radical  anticlerical,  and  Cyrille  Leculier, 
a  Moderate.  By  abstaining  from  voting,  the  clericals  allowed 
Bourgeois  to  win,  by  52  votes.774  At  Grenoble,  a  Socialist  and 


214  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

one  of  the  most  violent  of  all  anticlericals,  Alexandre  Zevaes, 
was  elected  because  the  clericals  refused  to  vote  for  a  Moderate 
Republican  who  had  declined  to  give  a  written  promise  that 
he  would  labor  for  the  repeal  of  existing  anticlerical  legisla- 
tion.775 The  number  of  such  cases,  where  the  clericals  could 
have  prevented  but  did  not  prevent  the  election  of  strenuous 
anticlericals,  was  no  less  than  62,  according  to  the  Journal  de 
Roubaix.776  In  other  districts,  clericals  of  the  Justice-Equality 
type  induced  a  Moderate  Republican  deputy  to  make  the  prom- 
ise that  he  would  advocate  the  repeal  of  anticlerical  legislation, 
and  as  a  result  a  number  of  his  voters  deserted  him,  so  that  a 
vigorous  anticlerical  was  elected.  In  still  other  cases,  the  ex- 
tremists supported  royalists  against  liberal  Catholic  'candi- 
dates endorsed  by  the  Government,  or  needlessly  attacked  men 
like  Charles  Dupuy  and  thus  angered  the  Moderate  Repub- 
licans.777 

The  sequel  to  the  elections  of  1898  is  quickly  told.  Im- 
mediately upon  the  assembling  of  the  new  Chamber,  the  Rad- 
icals and  Socialists  by  means  of  an  interpellation  attempted  to 
compel  the  Meline  Ministry  to  choose  definitely  between  an 
entente  with  the  rallies  and  an  entente  with  the  Extreme  Left, 
between  the  New  Spirit  and  militant  anticlericalism.  In  his 
embarrassment,  the  president  of  the  council  half  turned  his 
back  on  the  Right,  but  nevertheless  opposed  a  resolution  which 
would  compel  him  to  rely  upon  "  an  exclusively  Republican 
majority."  Foreseeing  that  the  left  wing  of  his  own  party 
would  not  tolerate  a  coalition  with  the  Right,  and  no  less  clearly 
divining,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  support  of  the  Radicals 
would  be  too  dearly  purchased  at  the  expense  of  his  principles, 
Jules  Meline  resigned,  on  June  15,  1898.  His  had  been  a  longer 
term  of  office  than  any  since  the  days  of  Thiers.778 

The  Radicals  now  took  the  helm  as  masters,  with  Henri 
Brisson  as  the  chief  of  a  Radical  ministry.  But  the  new  min- 
istry proved  too  frail  to  weather  the  fierce  storms  of  popular 
excitement  aroused  by  the  Dreyfus  case.  Clumsily  the  premier 
allowed  himself  to  be  drawn  into  a  test  of  strength  on  the  simple 
issue  of  patriotism,  of  suppressing  the  agitation  of  the  pro- 


"THE  NEW  SPIRIT"  215 

Dreyfus  extremists  as  injurious  to  the  morale  of  the  army. 
On  this  issue,  the  majority  of  the  Chamber  turned  against  him. 
Brisson  resigned.779 

Following  the  short-lived  Brisson  cabinet, —  it  had  lasted  only 
four  months, —  Charles  Dupuy  formed  his  third  cabinet,  Oc- 
tober 31,  1898,  and  for  a  brief  space  France  slipped  back  once 
more  into  the  old,  smooth-worn  groove  of  Moderate  Opportun- 
ism. But  times  had  changed.  Dupuy  found  himself  inces- 
santly colliding  either  with  the  aggressive  Radicals  and  So- 
cialists or  with  reactionary  antisemites ;  the  Dreyfus  Affair 
grew  more  and  more  troublesome ;  and  at  length  the  Moderate 
Government  was  jolted  out  of  office,  June  12,  i899.780  With 
Dupuy,  the  era  of  Moderate  Opportunist  cabinets  passed  away, 
and  the  New  Spirit,  which  had  still  been  hovering  wistfully 
in  the  background,  now  altogether  vanished  from  sight. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

REPUBLICAN  DEFENSE  AND  PIOU'S 
DILEMMA 

THE  ministerial  crisis  of  June,  1899,  marked  a  turning-point 
in  the  history  of  the  Republic.  For  the  men  of  the  Moderate 
Opportunist  or  "  Progressist "  group,  holding  the  balance  be- 
tween the  Right  and  the  Left  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
were  compelled  by  the  force  of  circumstances  to  make  the  most 
momentous  decision  of  their  career.  Too  weak  to  govern 
alone,  they  must  choose  either  Catholics  or  Radicals  and  Social- 
ists as  collaborators.  Upon  this  decision  depended  the  future 
of  France.  Between  Socialist  advocates  of  class  warfare  and 
Catholic  advocates  of  class  conciliation;  between  the  anti- 
militaristic internationalism  of  the  Extreme  Left  and  the  mili- 
tant patriotism  of  the  Right ;  between  religious  "  pacification  " 
on  the  basis  of  liberty  of  conscience  and  religious  warfare  for 
the  extirpation  of  Catholic  monastic  orders  and  Catholic 
schools  —  between  the  two  extremes  the  Moderates  must 
choose,  and  France  must  accept  the  decision. 

For  ten  days  the  destinies  of  Moderate  Opportunism  and 
of  France  hung  in  the  balance,  while  among  the  party  leaders 
negotiations  went  on  for  the  formation  of  a  new  cabinet. 
Finally,  on  June  23,  the  names  of  the  new  ministers  were 
published.781  It  was  to  be  a  cabinet  of  all  the  contradictions, 
rather  than  of  *'  all  the  talents,"  one  might  have  said  at  first 
glance.  There  was  Rene  Waldeck-Rousseau,  that  "  furious 
anti-Socialist,"  corporation  lawyer,  disciple  of  the  great  Gam- 
betta's  Moderatism, —  as  president  of  the  council,  selecting 
for  the  post  of  minister  of  commerce  an  avowed  Socialist,  none 
other  than  Alexandre  Millerand!  There  was  an  army  officer 
of  the  Second  Empire,  a  man  who  had  helped  to  extinguish  the 
Commune  in  the  blood  of  proletarians, —  General  Gallifet, — 

216 


REPUBLICAN  DEFENSE  AND  PIOU'S  DILEMMA        217 

joining  hands  as  minister  of  war  with  an  antimilitarist  Radical 
like  Caillaux  and  a  Socialist  like  Millerand  as  fellow-ministers ! 
The  lion  was  lying  down  with  the  lamb  in  truly  millennial 
fashion.  What  could  it  mean?  Simply  that  a  Moderate  Op- 
portunist leader  had  formed  a  Moderate-Radical-Socialist  coali- 
tion, a  coalition  the  elements  of  which  were  fundamentally  dis- 
agreed on  the  social  question,  on  the  fiscal  question  (i.  e.,  the 
income-tax),  on  the  military  question,  on  the  colonial  question, 
on  almost  every  question  indeed,  excepting  the  question  of  anti- 
clericalism.  It  was  a  "  Ministry  of  Republican  Defense  "  (de- 
fense republic  aine)  against  the  clericals  and  monarchists  who 
were  considered  to  be  conspiring  for  the  overthrow  of  the  Re- 
public. 

The  presence  of  a  "  Revolutionary  "  Socialist  in  the  Govern- 
ment was,  on  second  thought,  not  so  very  revolutionary.782 
Alexandre  Millerand's  speech  of  1896  at  Saint-Mande,  rob- 
bing the  Social  Revolution  of  its  terrors  and  making  it  an  af- 
fair of  slow  political  evolution,  might  well  have  convinced 
even  so  redoubtable  an  antagonist  of  socialism  as  Waldeck- 
Rousseau  -that  such  a  Socialist  as  Millerand,  if  actually  con- 
fronted with  the  practical  problems  of  government,  would 
prove  little  different  from  any  bourgeois  politician.  As  Wal- 
deck-Rousseau  himself  said,  socialism  was  a  very  remote  peril, 
whereas  the  "  reactionary  peril,"  the  clerical-nationalist-mon- 
archist peril,  was  much  closer  at  hand.  And,  in  fact,  through 
all  the  trying  debates  on  the  Associations  Bill  (which  was  in 
part  directed  against  the  monastic  orders),  he  found  the  So- 
cialist minister  and  the  Socialist  deputies  trusty  allies,  excellent 
anticlericals.  So  faithful  were  some  of  the  Government's  So- 
cialist supporters  that  on  occasion  they  did  not  hesitate  to 
vote  a  motion  of  confidence  in  the  Government,  even  when 
that  motion  formally  and  explicitly  condemned  the  funda- 
mental Socialist  doctrine  of  collectivism.783 

To  be  sure,  some  few  concessions  had  to  be  made  to  the 
economic  program  of  the  Socialists,  as  the  price  of  the  new 
alliance.  Millerand784  was  permitted  to  issue  decrees  im- 
proving the  condition  of  workingmen  employed  by  contractors 


218  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

doing  government  work ; 785  he  made  the  consultative  Superior 
Council  of  Labor  partly  elective ; 786  he  created  Trade  Boards 
(conseils  du  travail}  to  settle  disputes  between  capital  and 
labor  and  to  supervise  labor  conditions.787  His  greatest  work 
was  the  Millerand-Colliard  Law  of  I9OO,788  which  established 
an  eleven-hour  working  day,  to  be  reduced  to  10^2,  hours  after 
two  years  and  to  ten  hours  after  four  years,  for  women  and 
children  and  also  for  men  working  in  the  same  factories. 
When  it  is  considered  that  hitherto  the  legal  maximum  for 
children  had  been  ten  hours  and  for  women,  eleven,  Millerand's 
law,  salutary  as  it  undoubtedly  was,  can  hardly  be  classed  as 
revolutionary.  Socialism  had  indeed  grown  moderate,  almost 
tame.  One  or  two  other  projects  were  taken  up :  old-age  pen- 
sions were  one  item  of  the  Government's  program,  but  Wal- 
deck-Rousseau  allowed  the  Senate  to  hold  up  the  bill  which 
the  Chamber  passed  on  this  subject  and  then  he  allowed  the 
Chamber  to  adjourn  a  new  Pensions  Bill  which  his  Govern- 
ment introduced ;  the  matter  was  not  important  enough,  in  his 
eyes,  to  be  made  a  question  of  confidence.789  Similarly  a  bill 
for  the  protection  of  railway  servants  was  passed  by  the  Cham- 
ber, then  mutilated  in  the  Senate,  and  nothing  came  of  it.790 
Again,  the  Government  proposed  an  inheritance  tax,  with 
progressivity  up  to  a  million,  but  when  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties, more  unkind  than  the  Government  to  millionaires,  insisted 
upon  extending  the  principle  of  progressivity  beyond  the  mil- 
lion mark,  the  Government  allowed  the  Senate  to  reduce  the 
rate  fixed  by  the  Chamber.791  It  was  plain  that  the  heart  of 
the  premier  was  not  in  these  economic  reforms.  Waldeck- 
Rousseau  was  interested  in  other  matters. 

One  fact  stands  out  with  unmistakable  clearness  in  the  record 
of  the  Waldeck-Rousseau-Millerand  cabinet.  The  Govern- 
ment of  Republican  Defense  reincarnated  the  spirit  of  Gam- 
betta's  militant  anti-clericalism,  hostile  to  Spuller's  New  Spirit 
of  tolerance.  The  idea  of  Spuller  and  Meline  had  been  to 
conciliate  the  Catholics  by  tolerance  in  order  to  combat  the 
Socialists ;  the  guiding  principle  with  Waldeck-Rousseau  was 
to  conciliate  the  Socialists  in  order  to  combat  the  Catholics. 


REPUBLICAN  DEFENSE  AND  PIOU'S  DILEMMA        219 

Had  all  the  Catholics  been  rallies,  i.  e.,  had  all  Catholics  been 
whole-heartedly  and  scrupulously  obedient  to  the  spirit  of  Leo 
Kill's  admonitions ;  had  they  made  it  their  aim  merely  to 
change  die  personnel  and  policy  of  the  Government  but  not 
the  form  of  the  constitution,  Waldeck-Rousseau's  cabinet 
would  have  been  impossible.  But  a  certain  number  of  Cath- 
olics continued  to  look  with  ill-disguised  approval,  if  not  with 
open  sympathy,  upon  the  agitation  conducted  by  so-called 
"  Nationalists  "  like  Paul  Deroulede  and  Jules  Guerin ; 792  a 
few  eminent  Catholic  writers,  like  the  Marquis  de  La  Tour  du 
Pin,793  continued  to  pen  glowing  descriptions  of  the  theoretical 
superiority  of  a  Christian  monarchy  over  a  parliamentary  re- 
public ;  and  it  was  easy  for  anticlericals  to  charge  that  clerical- 
ism was  hostile  to  the  Republic.  Moreover,  the  strenuous  de- 
nunciation of  Judaism  and  Free-Masonry  by  certain  antisemitic 
Catholic  journals  enabled  the  anticlericals  to  accuse  the  Cath- 
olics of  religious  intolerance  and  bigotry.  And  the  Govern- 
ment was  not  disposed  to  let  any  manifestation  of  anti-Repub- 
licanism or  antisemitism  go  unreproved.  Dreyfus,  the  Jewish 
captain  of  artillery  against  whom  the  wrath  of  the  antisemites 
had  been  especially  directed,  was  granted  full  pardon  by  the 
president  of  the  Republic,  who  acted,  of  course,  at  the  dicta- 
tion of  the  ministry,  although  Dreyfus  had  just  been  found 
guilty  in  a  second  trial.794  The  house  of  the  antisemitic  agita- 
tor, Jules  Guerin,  was  melodramatically  besieged  by  troops, 
until  after  thirty-seven  days'  resistance  he  capitulated  and  was 
dragged  away  to  trial  for  alleged  conspiracy  against  the  Re- 
public; he  was  sentenced  to  ten  years'  detention.795  Sixty- 
seven  "  suspects  "  were  arrested  and  brought  up  for  trial.  Paul 
Deroulede  and  other  men  who  had  been  prominent  among  the 
Nationalists  were  exiled.796 

Still  further  Waldeck-Rousseau  carried  his  campaign  of 
Republican  Defense.  Not  only  the  principal  antisemites  and 
monarchist  agitators,  but  also  the  Catholic  monks  who  were 
accused  of  sympathizing  with  them,  must  be  punished.  In 
November,  1899,  the  Government  instituted  proceedings  against 
the  Assumptionists  —  the  monastic  order  which  had  founded 


220  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

the  Croix  and  the  Justice-Equality  committee  —  as  enemies  of 
the  Republic,  and  in  course  of  time  a  decision  was  obtained 
ordering  the  dissolution  of  the  order.797  Priests  and  bishops 
who  protested  were  deprived  of  their  salaries.798  But  this  was 
only  a  beginning. 

The  great  work  of  Waldeck-Rousseau  was  the  Associations 
Law  of  July  I,  1901.  The  idea  had  long  been  a  favorite  one 
with  him.  Almost  twenty  years  previously,  as  minister  of  the 
interior  in  the  Ferry  cabinet,  he  had  proposed  an  attack  on  the 
monastic  orders.  The  bill,  as  presented  in  November,  1899, 
permitted  great  liberty  for  political  and  other  associations, 
but  provided  that  no  association  including  foreigners, —  and 
that  meant  the  monastic  orders, —  could  be  founded  without 
previous  authorization  by  act  of  parliament  (art.  13)  and 
that  any  association  involving  renunciation  of  the  right  to  marry 
or  to  own  property  was  illegal  and  could  be  dissolved  by  simple 
ministerial  decree  (arts.  2,  6). 

Despite  the  protests  of  the  Catholics,  Waldeck-Rousseau 
carried  the  bill  through  triumphantly  and  placed  it  upon  the 
statute  books,  July  I,  1901. 7"  Only  one  regret  troubled  him. 
The  Education  Bill  (loi  du  stage  scolaire},  a  companion  to  the 
Associations  Bill,  had  been  defeated;  had  it  been  passed  it 
would  have  closed  to  graduates  of  Catholic  schools  all  public 
offices  for  which  a  secondary  education  was  required,  by 
prescribing  that  the  three  last  years  of  secondary  education 
must  be  taken  in  a  public  school  as  a  condition  of  eligibility 
to  careers  in  Government  service.  There  was  a  great  outcry 
against  the  Education  Bill,  however,  as  too  flagrant  a  violation 
of  liberty  of  conscience,  and  it  was  stifled  in  committee.800 

For  the  purposes  of  this  study  the  anti-Catholic  policy  of 
Waldeck-Rousseau's  Government  is  interesting  only  so  far  as 
it  helps  to  explain  the  political  and  social-political  situation  out 
of  which  grew  the  Popular  Liberal  Party.  Waldeck-Rous- 
seau's anticlericalism  threw  the  Catholic  rallies,  whether  be- 
longing to  Piou's  Republican  Right  or  to  the  right  wing  of  the 
Moderate  (Progressist)  group,  into  the  sharpest  kind  of  op- 
position to  the  ministerial  majority.  On  some  occasions  in 


REPUBLICAN  DEFENSE  AND  PIOU'S  DILEMMA       221 

the  past  decade,  the  Social  Catholics  of  the  Right  had  shown 
a  remarkable  tendency  as  social  reformers  to  join  forces  with 
the  Socialists  in  overcoming  the  repugnance  of  the  Moderates 
to  social  reforms.  Now,  against  the  anticlerical  Moderate- 
Radical-Socialist  ministerial  combination,  the  Social  Catholics 
as  Catholics  found  themselves  almost  irresistibly  impelled  to- 
ward alliance  with  that  part  of  the  Moderate  or  Progressist 
group  which  defended  religious  liberty  and  opposed  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

There  were  but  two  courses  open.  Either  the  Social  Cath- 
olics must  become  members  of  the  Progressist  Opposition  in 
order  to  defend  religious  liberty,  and  thereby  run  the  risk  of 
having  their  own  special  program  of  social  reconstruction  sub- 
merged by  Progressist  individualism,  or  else  they  must  form 
a  distinct  party  organization  of  their  own,  which  might  pre- 
serve their  politico-social  program  and  at  the  same  time  form 
one  of  the  elements,  with  the  Progressists,  in  a  liberal  bloc, 
opposed  to  anticlericalism,  Radicalism,  and  Socialism.  It  was 
Piou's  decision  ito  form  such  a  separate  party,  and  Count  Al- 
bert de  Mun's  decision  to  join  him,  that  brought  into  existence 
the  Liberal  Group,  which  was  subsequently  called  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party,  and  which  became  the  chief  exponent  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies  of  the  Social  Catholic  view  of  economic 
reforms. 

Piou,  it  should  be  remarked,  and  several  other  founders  of 
the  Liberal  Group,  were  hardly  very  advanced  in  their  social 
program,  but  the  fact  that  de  Mun  and  other  vigorous  Social 
Catholics  joined  with  Piou,  and  ultimately  imposed  their  pro- 
gram upon  the  party  officially,  made  the  Liberal  Group  a  real 
representative  of  Social  Catholicism  as  well  as  of  democratic 
political  liberty. 

Both  elements  were  necessary,  if  the  Liberal  Group  was  not 
to  be  entirely  impotent  in  questions  of  social  legislation.  With- 
out the  principles  of  Social  Catholicism,  the  Catholic  Repub- 
licans would  be  philosophically  unable  to  meet  social  problems 
in  a  constructive  spirit.  Without  a  willingness  to  accept  and 
use  political  democracy,  Social  Catholics  living  in  a  republican 


222  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

nation  would  be  practically  unable  to  realize  their  desires  and 
would  be  little  better  than  Utopians,  dreaming  of  an  impractic- 
able reconstruction  of  society  by  an  improbable  Christian  mon- 
arch. Only  by  combining  a  loyal  acceptance  of  democracy  with 
a  vigorous  advocacy  of  social  reforms  could  the  Catholics  in 
France  hope  to  prevent  the  anticlericals,  Radicals,  Socialist- 
Radicals,  and  Socialists  from  winning  in  increasing  numbers 
the  votes  of  the  workingmen,  even  of  Catholic  workingmen, 
who  failed  to  understand  why  the  Christian  religion  should  be 
incompatible  with  a  republican  form  of  government  or  wkh 
social  justice. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY 
THE  PRODUCT  OF  A  CENTURY  OF  EVOLUTION 

THE  Popular  Liberal  Party  is  the  most  influential  political 
organ  of  the  Social  Catholic  movement  in  France.  Numer- 
ically, it  is  stronger  than  the  Socialist  party  and  more  powerful, 
probably,  than  the  Syndicalist  movement.  Moreover,  the  pres- 
ent trend  of  public  opinion  toward  social  legislation,  toward 
functional  representation,  toward  industrial  arbitration  and 
conciliation,  and  toward  labor-participation  in  industrial  man- 
agement augurs  well  for  a  party  which  has  long  been  advocat- 
ing such  principles  and  elaborating  plans  for  their  application. 

By  way  of  introduction  to  a  discussion  of  the  program  and 
present  influence  of  the  organization,  it  may  not  be  amiss  to 
suggest  the  significance  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  in  re- 
lation to  the  two  greatest  features  of  nineteenth-century  his- 
tory, namely,  democracy  and  industrialism.  The  nineteenth 
century, —  to  revert  to  the  theme  discussed  in  the  first  chapter 
of  this  'book, —  was  largely  concerned  with  efforts  to  adjust 
modern  society  to  two  new  and  revolutionary  facts,  the  fact 
of  the  Industrial  Revolution  and  the  fact  of  the  democratic 
revolution.  The  Popular  Liberal  Party's  program  represents 
the  culmination  of  century-long  endeavors  on  the  part  of  French 
Catholics  to  make  such  an  adjustment.  The  Popular  Liberal 
Party  accepts  industrialism  and  democracy  as  facts,  and  pro- 
poses a  whole  series  of  political  and  economic  reforms  as  the 
means  by  which  society  and  government  may  be  adjusted  to  the 
new  situation. 

The  Popular  Liberal  Party's  program,  it  has  been  said,  is  the 
culmination  of  a  century-long  evolution.  A  brief  review  of 
the  story  told  in  the  foregoing  chapters  will  make  clear  the 
meaning  of  this  statement. 

223 


224  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

In  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  the  Indus- 
trial Revolution  in  France  was  beginning  to  bring  forth  its  first 
fruits  of  "  progress  and  poverty,"  and  when  the  generally  ac- 
cepted teachings  of  "  economic  Liberalism "  or  laissez-faire, 
seemed  to  condemn  the  working  classes  to  a  lot  little  better  than 
slavery,  there  appeared  among  the  leaders  of  Catholic  thought  a 
movement  of  sympathy  for  the  workers  and  a  protest  against 
the  doctrines  of  the  economists.  The  laissez-faire  theory,  said 
these  Catholics,  had  been  used  as  a  pretext  for  destroying  the 
guilds  and  prohibiting  any  organization  of  labor ;  the  result  had 
been  industrial  anarchy;  and  in  his  isolated  and  defenseless 
condition  the  workingman  had  fallen  a  victim  to  ruthless  ex- 
ploitation. In  the  absence  of  industrial  organization  and  of 
protective  legislation,  individual  employers,  be  they  ever  so 
philanthropic,  could  not  pay  decent  wages  or  dispense  with  child 
labor  or  grant  shorter  working  hours,  without  being  ruined  by 
less  scrupulous  competitors.  Absolute  industrial  liberty,  in 
short,  was  responsible  for  social  injustice  which  no  Christian 
could  condone.  A  Christianized  political  economy,  based  on 
respect  of  the  human  rights  and  dignity  of  labor,  must  be 
substituted  for  "  economic  Liberalism." 

In  some  cases,  no  doubt,  this  denunciation  of  *'  Liberalism  " 
in  economics  was  simply  a  taunt  which  resentful  clericals, 
aristocrats,  and  monarchists,  eager  to  undo  the  work  of  the 
French  Revolution,  might  cast,  in  the  teeth  of  the  Liberals, 
who  were,  in  their  turn,  glorifying  the  Revolution  and  oppos- 
ing Church,  aristocracy,  and  monarchy.  In  other  cases,  the 
social  reaction  of  the  Catholics  seems  to  have  been  an  impul- 
sive protest  against  injustice.  In  still  other  cases,  it  was  in- 
spired by  the  idea  that  the  Church  had  a  great  mission  to  fulfil 
in  achieving  the  spiritual  uplift  of  the  masses.  But  whatever 
the  motives,  the  result  was  the  development  of  a  rudimentary 
program  of  social  reform  based  on  Christian  principles  and 
opposed  to  economic  Liberalism. 

To  combine  this  Catholic  reaction  against  industrial  liberty 
with  a  movement  for  political  liberty  might  seem  paradoxical. 
Nevertheless,  in  the  second  quarter  of  the  century  a  group  of 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  225 

so-called  Liberal  Catholics  —  men  such  as  Lamennais,  Maret, 
Ozanam,  and  de  Coux, —  had  endeavored  to  fuse  the  two  ele- 
ments, political  liberty  and  Christian  social  reform,  in  the 
glowing  fire  of  their  own  ardent  enthusiasm ;  but  their  striving 
had  been  in  vain,  and  the  fire  they  had  kindled  flickered  out  in 
the  chill  atmosphere  of  scientific  economic  individualism  and 
of  political  reaction  under  the  Second  Empire.  With  the  ad- 
vent of  the  Third  Republic,  the  disjunction  of  democracy  and 
Social  Catholicism  seemed  complete. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  Third  Republic  we  find  that  the 
Catholics  who  are  denouncing  economic  Liberalism  are  also 
repudiating  political  Liberalism ;  they  are  proclaiming  the  neces- 
sity of  a  monarchical  restoration,  a  "  Counter-Revolution. " 
Such  was  the  gospel  of  Count  Albert  de  Mun  and  of  La  Tour 
du  Pin  before  1892. 

When  Leo  XIII  opportunely  intervened  in  1892,  urging  all 
French  Catholics  to  cease  their  futile  anti-Republican  agitation, 
many  of  the  monarchist  Social  Catholics  obediently  abandoned 
their  political  program  of  monarchical  restoration  and  leaned 
all  the  more  heavily  upon  their  Catholic  social  program,  much 
as  a  man  deprived  of  one  leg  would  contrive  to  get  along  on 
the  other.  A  lifeless  loyalty  to  the  constitution  as  a  fait  ac- 
compli served  come  of  these  "rallies"  or  former  monarchists 
as  a  useful  crutch.  Others,  like  La  Tour  du  Pin,  refused  to 
part  with  their  monarchism. 

Consequently,  during  the  'nineties  there  could  be  seen,  from 
the  viewpoint  of  social  politics,  at  least  seven  different  types  of 
Catholics :  first,  monarchists  who  were  indifferent  to  social  re- 
form, being  reactionary  in  politics  and  liberal  in  economics ; 
second,  Social  Catholic  monarchists,  who  held  that  monarchy 
was  essential  to  social  reconstruction,  and  who  were  anti- 
liberal  in  both  politics  and  economics ;  third,  Social  Catholic 
Constitutionalists  or  rallies,  who  were  anti-liberal  in  economics 
but  attempted  to  be  neutral  in  politics ;  fourth,  other  rallies 
who  were  liberal  in  economics,  i.  e.,  opposed  to  extensive  social 
legislation ;  fifth,  Progressists,  who  sincerely  accepted  the  Re- 
public and  hoped  that  their  own  presence  in  the  moderate 


226  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Republican  group  would  serve  as  a  leaven,  making  the  whole 
lump  more  tolerant  in  religious  matters, —  men  who  were  usu- 
ally liberal  both  in  politics  and  in  economics;  sixth,  Christian 
Democrats,  who  seemed  so  eager  not  merely  to  reconcile  but 
absolutely  to  identify  Christianity  with  political  and  social 
democracy  that  they  fell  under  the  suspicion  of  being  more 
democrats  than  Christians;  and  finally,  those  indifferentists, 
all  too  numerous,  who  from  discouragement  or  from  sheer 
indolence  held  aloof  from  all  programs  and  parties. 

The  need  for  a  constructive  politico-social  program  and  a 
fighting  organization  was  revealed  by  the  Dreyfus  affair,  which 
began  as  a  skirmish  between  the  most  belligerent  clericals  and 
the  most  alert  anticlericals,  and  developed  into  a  general  battle 
in  which  the  ill-organized  Catholic  groups  found  their  scat- 
tered forces  no  match  for  Waldeck-Rousseau's  strong  anti- 
clerical bloc  or  coalition  of  Moderates,  Radicals,  and  Social- 
ists. Convinced  that  the  Catholic  religion  in  France  was  men- 
aced by  the  anticlerical  bloc,  some  of  the  most  resolute  cham- 
pions of  Catholicism  stepped  forward  from  the  various  groups 
just  enumerated,  and  drew  together  to  concert  a  plan  of  ac- 
tion. Liberal  Constitutionalists,  Social  Catholic  rallies,  and 
Catholic  Progressists,  and  perhaps  even  a  few  individuals  from 
among  the  other  groups,  were  ready  to  rally  around  a  new 
standard,  if  only  a  leader  courageous  and  wise  enough  to  raise 
it  could  be  found. 

It  was  at  this  moment  that  Jacques  Piou,  that  veteran  Con- 
stitutionalist, stepped  forth  from  the  Republican  Right  and 
unfurled  the  banner  of  "liberal  action"  (Action  Liberflle). 
Says  Count  Albert  de  Mun, 

The  whole  work  of  Jacques  Piou  rests  upon  these  ideas.  At  the 
moment  when  the  great  crisis  of  the  ralliement  [i.  e.,  the  acceptance 
of  the  Republic  by  Catholics]  so  profoundly  divided  the  Catholics, 
he  offered  .  .  .  the  practical  means  enabling  them,  without  abandon- 
ing aught  of  their  principles,  to  follow  the  inspirations  of  their 
conscience,  to  join  in  an  honest  entente  with  those  whose  aid  was 
indispensable  for  the  success  of  their  cause,  and  to  consecrate  them- 
selves—  free  from  the  confusion  of  constitutional  struggles  —  to 
the  championship  of  religious  liberties,  to  the  promotion  of  social 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  227 

reforms,  to  the  service  of  the  nation.    It  is  enough  to  entitle  him 
to  their  perpetual  gratitude.801 

In  the  passage  just  cited,  de  Mun  implies  that  the  new  party 
founded  by  Piou  was  neutral  as  regards  the  question  of  po- 
litical liberty.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  party  when  it 
came  to  work  out  its  program  not  only  accepted  the  Republic, 
but  proposed  a  very  remarkable  series  of  thoroughly  demo- 
cratic reforms,  calculated  to  make  the  French  Republic  much 
more  liberal  than  it  actually  was.  And  with  its  democratic 
program  of  political  reform,  the  party  combined  the  program 
of  social  reconstruction  which  de  Mun  and  other  Social 
Catholics  had  been  elaborating.  Thus  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party,  like  the  Liberal  Catholics  of  1830-1848,  attempted  to 
accept  Liberalism  or  democracy  in  politics,  while  repudiating 
Liberalism  in  economics ;  or,  to  say  the  same  thing  in  different 
words,  it  succeeded  in  the  task  which  the  Liberal  Catholics  had 
failed  to  achieve,  the  task  of  adapting  the  Catholic  social  pro- 
gram to  political  democracy. 

ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  PARTY 

The  Popular  Liberal  Party  (Action  Liberate  Populaire) 
grew  out  of  the  Liberal  Group  (Action  Liberate)  802  which 
was  formed  in  1899  by  a  group  of  Catholic  deputies,803  resent- 
ful of  Waldeck-Rousseau's  aggressively  anticlerical  policies.804 

Jacques  Piou,  the  man  of  politics,  keenly  alive  to  the  strategy 
of  party  manoeuvres,  was  the  center  of  the  group  and  became 
the  president  of  the  managing  committee  (comite  directeur)  ; 
his  influence  as  the  chief  of  the  old  "  Constitutionalist "  group 
of  .the  "  Republican  Right "  entitled  him  to  the  place  of  honor 
no  less  justly  than  his  alertness  and  activity  in  constituting  the 
new  party  qualified  him  for  the  post  of  greatest  responsibility. 

Piou  represented  the  group  of  Catholics  who  out  of  respect 
for  the  clearly  manifested  will  of  the  people  had  accepted  the 
Republic,  but  still  held  aloof  from  the  recognized  Republican 
parties  and  in  practice  acted  for  the  most  part  on  a  negative 
program  of  resisting  anticlericalism,  combating  socialism,  de- 


228  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

nouncing  antimilitarism.  Baron  Amedee  Reille,  a  naval  officer 
who  joined  with  Piou,  was  of  a  more  conservative,  aristocratic 
type,  the  type  which  from  that  day  to  this  has  supplied  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  with  what  might  be  called  a  right  wing, 
tremendously  patriotic,  emphatically  Catholic,  firmly  convinced 
that  the  mission  of  the  nobility  is  to  serve  faithfully  the  inter- 
ests of  France,  of  the  Church,  and  of  the  People.  But  the  most 
distinguished  member  of  the  triumvirate  805  which  founded  the 
party  was  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  whose  recent  admission  to 
the  Academic  Frangaise  had  designated  him  as  one  of  the  fore- 
most oraitors  of  France,  and  whose  services  in  founding  the 
Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs,  and  in  championing  the  cause  of 
Social  Catholicism,  had  won  him  universal  recognition  as  the 
spokesman  of  the  rising  Social  Catholic  school  of  economics. 
Modestly  enough,  de  Mun  consented  to  lend  the  full  support 
of  his  influence  and  the  prestige  of  his  name  to  the  party, 
without  claiming  the  honor  of  its  presidency.  To  quote  the 
eulogistic  words  of  an  admirer: 

The  authoritative  voice  of  the  Count  de  Mun  encouraged  him 
(Piou),  or  rather  this  encouragement  was  expressed  by  an  act, 
the  acceptance  of  the  vice-presidency  of  the  future  association. 
Thus  M.  de  Mun,  by  the  impulsive  warmth  of  his  conviction  and 
of  his  heart,  gave  to  all  a  model  of  union  and  of  discipline.  Like  a 
proud  godfather  who  does  not  claim  paternal  authority,  he  brought 
a  precious  gift  to  the  cradle  of  the  Liberal  Party.806 

Or  as  a  writer  in  I' Association  catholique807  a  little  less  pic- 
turesquely declared,  "  the  name  of  M.  de  Mun,  whatever  place 
it  may  occupy,  is  a  banner  [drapeau]  for  the  party  to  which  he 
belongs."  It  was  de  Mun's  influence  which  gave  the  nascent 
party  its  Social  Catholic  character. 

The  deputies  who  flocked  to  the  standard  raised  by  Piou,  de 
Mun,  and  Reille  formed  a  heterogeneous  group.  Of  the  fifty- 
eight  members  of  the  Liberal  Group  as  shown  by  the  Annuaire 
du  parlement  of  1901,  sixteen  had  been  classed  as  rallies  in 
previous  issues  of  the  Annuaire,  three  as  Republicans  liberaux, 
one  as  a  Republicain  progressiste,  two  as  nationalist es,  one  as 
an  independent.*™ 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  229 

From  another  point  of  view,  one  might  say  that  the  group 
was  formed  by  the  affiliation  of  certain  former  Monarchists  and 
"  Nationalists  "  as  well  as  certain  Progressists  with  the  bulk  of 
Piou's  Constitutionalist  group,  the  Republican  Right.  This 
fact  is  clearly  shown  by  a  count  of  the  members  of  the  Liberal 
Group  (in  1901 )  who  continued  at  the  same  time  to  be  members 
of  other  groups,  espousing  the  new  without  forsaking  the  old. 
No  fewer  than  18  of  the  58  members  of  the  Liberal  Group  in 
1901  called  themselves  Progressists  as  well  as  Liberals,809  and 
22  were  inscribed  in  the  group  of  National  Defense,  as  Nation- 
alists.810 The  Nationalist  group,  it  should  be  explained,  was 
recruited  mostly  from  antisemitic  patriots,  most  but  by  no 
means  all  of  whom  cherished  Monarchist  sympathies,  avowed 
or  disguised  as  the  case  might  be.  There  remained  something 
like  thirty  simon-pure  "  Liberals." 

Upon  analysis,  the  social  elements  appear  no  less  heterogene- 
ous than  the  political  components  of  the  Liberal  Group  in  this 
earliest  stage  of  its  career,  from  1899  to  the  elections  of  1902. 
Of  the  seventy-four  deputies  who  were  affiliated  with  the  Liberal 
Group  (including  a  number,  at  least  fourteen,  who  were  only 
transiently  so  affiliated),  about  thirty  were  owners  of  landed 
estates,  sixteen  belonged  to  the  legal  profession ;  there  were  fif- 
teen industrial  capitalists  and  engineers,  including  Eugene 
Schneider  of  the  famous  Creusot  munition  works,  and  Armand 
Viellard-Migeon,  administrator  of  the  Suez  Canal ;  several 
members  were  bankers,  journalists,  magistrates;  Jules  Jaluzot, 
proprietor  of  the  famous  Magasin  du  Printemps,  represented 
mercantile  interests ;  Jules  Gaillard  had  been  an  attache  d'am- 
bassade;  Abbe  Gayraud,  an  "  apostolic  missionary,"  had  for- 
merly been  a  Dominican  professor  of  theology  and  scholastic 
philosophy  at  the  Catholic  University  of  Toulouse;  Louis  Passy 
had  achieved  distinction  as  savant  and  economist,  Henry  Cochin 
as  something  of  a  litterateur  and  medievalist ;  de  Mun's  gift  of 
oratory  had  won  him  membership  in  the  Academie  fran^aisc, 
while  his  economic  studies  had  given  him  some  eminence  in  the 
field  of  social  science. 

With  a  membership  of  this  character, —  including  aristocratic 


230  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

landowners  and  army  officers,  industrial  capitalists,  lawyers, 
publicists  —  the  group  might  quite  naturally  have  been  expected 
to  manifest  a  most  reactionary  spirit  of  opposition  to  all  meas- 
ures of  political  progress  or  of  social  justice.  But  mirabile 
dictu,  this  naturally  conservative  coalition  was  destined  to  be- 
come one  of  the  most  radical  parties  in  France,  in  the  sense  that 
it  adopted  an  elaborate  constructive  program  of  political  and 
economic  reforms,  boldly  conceived  in  a  spirit  of  democratic 
progress. 

Perhaps  for  the  sake  of  a  clear  understanding,  it  would  be 
well  to  examine  the  organic  structure  of  the  party  before  at- 
tempting to  study  its  program.  The  Liberal  Group  (Action  Lib- 
erale),  founded  in  1899,  was  not  a  full-fledged  political  party, 
in  the  Anglo-Saxon  sense,  but  merely  the  embryo  of  such  a 
party,  merely  an  informal  group  of  deputies  in  the  Chamber. 
As  the  general  elections  of  1902  drew  near,  the  leaders  of  the 
group,  considering  that  some  public  declaration  of  policy  was 
necessary,  delivered  program  speeches  before  a  meeting  in  the 
Hall  of  the  Agriculturists  of  France  (la  salle  des  Agriculteurs 
de  France),  July  5,  1901 ; 811  a  permanent  secretariat  was  estab- 
lished and  an  office  opened  at  7,  rue  Las-Cases,  and  the  manag- 
ing committee  organized  the  electoral  campaign.812 

The  brain  of  the  party  was  there,  but  as  yet  the  body  had  not 
formed.  After  the  elections,  however,  the  body  was  added  to 
the  brain,  and  the  Liberal  Group  became  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party  (Action  Liberale  Populaire).  The  addition  of  the  ad- 
jective *'  Popular  "  was  significant.  It  meant  that  the  party 
"  appealed  to  the  mass  of  the  electors  and  no  longer  solely  to 
the  elected,  and  that  it  was  determined  to  rest  upon  the  demo- 
cratic foundations  of  the  country." 813  As  the  membership- 
certificates  declared, 

It  [the  party]  styles  itself  Popular  because,  on  the  one  hand,  it 
desires  to  derive  its  strength  from  the  people  by  the  number  of  its 
adherents ;  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  solicitous  above  all  to  defend 
the  interests  of  the  workingmen,  which  are  constantly  betrayed  by 
those  who  promise  everything  before  the  elections  and  hold  none 
of  their  promises  afterwards.814 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  231 

The  Popular  Liberal  Party  was  the  first  legally  constituted 
political  party  in  the  Third  Republic.  In  other  words  it  was 
the  first  to  take  advantage  of  the  Associations  Law  of  July  i, 
1901,  by  depositing  its  constitution  at  the  office  of  the  prefect  of 
police,  May  17,  1902. 815  And  it  was  a  pioneer  in  the  path 
which  other  French  parties  have  subsequently  followed,  the 
path  of  firmer  party  organization  and  clearer  definition  of  pro- 
grams. To  the  student  of  comparative  government  this  feature 
is  of  particular  interest,  as  marking  a  definite  stage  in  the 
evolution  of  the  French  parliamentary  system  from  the  irre- 
sponsibility of  loose,  overlapping  groups,  ever  in  a  state  of  flux, 
and  with  the  vaguest  of  platforms,  toward  a  system  of  well- 
knit  party-organizations,  with  clear-cut  programs,  and  a  genuine 
responsibility  before  the  electorate  for  a  sincere  endeavor  to 
fulfill  electoral  promises. 

From  die  embryonic  stage  of  the  Liberal  Group,  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  developed  at  once  into  a  state  if  not  of  maturity 
at  least  of  organic  perfection.  In  the  eyes  of  the  law,  the 
Liberal  Popular  Party  was  an  association,  legally  incorporated, 
and  represented  by  a  Central  Committee  (Comite  central). 
The  Central  Committee,810  being  composed  of  founders  to- 
gether with  new  members  chosen  by  cob'ptation,  served  as  a 
general  staff,  ensuring  not  only  effective  discipline  817  but  also 
unswerving  perseverance  in  the  plan  of  campaign.  A  party, 
to  serve  as  a  genuine  representation  of  the  views  and  interests 
of  a  popular  following,  must  have  sufficient  continuity  of  pro- 
gram to  prove  its  own  sincerity  and  to  enable  the  voters  to 
pass  upon  its  merits  intelligently;  a  party  which  constantly 
veers  in  its  aims,  and  makes  its  appeal  to  the  passion  of  the 
moment  or  to  personal  loyalty  cannot  easily  contribute  to  the 
stable  development  of  constructive  policies.  As  the  practical 
fulfilment  of  electoral  promises,  of  course,  would  naturally 
be  the  duty  of  the  parliamentary  representatives  of  the  party, 
it  is  of  interest  to  note  that  most  of  the  members  of  the  Central 
Committee  were  also  members  of  the  group  of  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies;  usually,  also,  one 
or  more  senators  were  included  in  the  Central  Committee,  but. 


232  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

the  party  was  too  thinly  represented  in  the  Senate  to  warrant 
the  creation  of  a  separate  party  group  in  that  chamber. 

The  ranks  of  the  party  were  filled  by  Sustaining  Members 
(again  I  use  an  equivalent,  rather  than  a  translation,  of  the 
French  phrase  —  membres  societaires)  and  Ordinary  Members 
(membres  adherents},  the  former  paying  500  francs  as  a  life- 
subscription  or  25  francs  a  year,  rthe  latter  subscribing  one  franc 
annually.818  Women,  as  well  as  men,  were  eligible.  By  exact- 
ing an  annual  payment  of  at  least  one  franc  from  each  of  its 
members,  the  party  excluded  indifferent  adherents  from  its 
membership,  and  voluntarily  kept  its  membership  strength 
much  inferior  to  its  voting  strength;  when,  therefore,  the 
party  claimed  160,000  members  in  1904 819  and  265,000  in 
191 1,820  no  more  convincing  proof  could  be  asked  that  a  genuine 
and  a  numerically  important  popular  foundation  had  been  laid 
for  the  parliamentary  group.  The  Unified  Socialist  Party,  it 
should  be  remembered,  had  only  35,000  members  in  1905  and 
approximately  63,000  in  1912  ;821  that  is,  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party  had  more  than  four  times  as  many  members,  although 
it  exacted  four  times  as  heavy  a  payment  from  its  members 
by  way  of  dues. 

True  to  one  of  the  cardinal  principles  of  its  politico-social 
program,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  in  its  own  organization 
endeavored  to  give  a  living  demonstration  of  the  virtues  of 
decentralization.  In  their  local  groups  and  committees,  the 
members  of  the  party  enjoyed  entire  freedom  of  self-adminis- 
tration ;  the  national  party  did  not  even  demand  that  the  prop- 
erty of  the  local  groups  should  be  vested  in  the  name  of  the 
National  Organization ; 822  the  only  requirement  was  fidelity 
to  the  purpose  and  spirit  of  the  party.  The  local  committees 
were  more  or  less  spontaneously  organized  on  the  basis  of  the 
commune,  of  the  canton,  of  the  arrondissement,  and  of  the 
departement.  In  course  of  time,  as  the  number  of  local  com- 
mittees became  unwieldy,  passing  the  thousand  mark,  a  ten- 
dency developed  to  form  provincial  or  regional  federations  as 
intermediaries  between  the  Central  Committee  and  the  local 
committees.  A  Federation  of  the  North,  a  Federation  of  the 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  233 

Southwest,  a  Regional  Committee  of  Lyons,  a  Federation  of 
Languedoc,  of  Provence,  sprang  into  being.  "  Even  in  its 
method  of  organization,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  reacts 
against  the  Jacobin  tradition,"  by  returning  to  the  ancient 
"  provinces  "  as  more  natural  divisions  than  the  modern  "  de- 
partments "  —  those  "  bureaucratic  fictions "  created  by  the 
Revolution.823 

As  an  army  must  have  its  officers'  training  camps,  its  stations, 
its  economic  auxiliaries,  and  manifold  other  supporting  serv- 
ices, so  a  political  party,  if  it  would  achieve  victory  through 
superior  organization,  has  no  less  need  of  training  camps,  re- 
cruiting stations,  of  economic  and  social  auxiliaries. 

The  officers'  training  camp,  one  might  say,  of  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  was  the  National  Young  Men's  Liberal  Federation 
(Federation  Nationale  de  la  Jeunesse  Liberate),  an  organiza- 
tion affording  an  outlet  for  the  energies  as  well  as  training  for 
the  faculties  of  the  young  men  who  in  the  coming  generation 
would  furnish  the  officers  —  the  local  leaders,  the  deputies,  the 
secretaries  —  of  the  party.  The  Jeunesse  Liberale,  as  it  was 
commonly  styled,  rendered  valuable  service  in  extending  propa- 
ganda, in  supplying  watchers  for  election-day,  in  keeping  order 
at  public  mass-meetings,  and  in  a  thousand  different  ways.824 

Alongside  of  the  Jeunesse  Liberale,  it  may  be  remarked 
parenthetically,  there  was  also  an  Association  Cdtholique  de  la 
Jeunesse  Franqaise  (French  Young  Men's  Catholic  Associa- 
tion), which,  being  organized  on  a  broader  basis, —  a  religious 
rather  than  a  partisan  basis, —  was  not  directly  ancillary  to 
the  Liberal  Popular  Party,  but  indirectly  brought  added  strength 
and  new  recruits  to  the  party  by  stimulating  the  Social  Catholic 
propaganda  in  France.825 

Of  the  various  other  organizations  auxiliary  to,  or,  rather, 
affiliated  with,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  this  is  not  the  place 
for  an  extended  description,  but  only  for  the  barest  mention. 
The  Patriotic  League  of  French  Women  (Ligue  patriotique  dcs 
fran^aises),  founded  in  the  same  year  that  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party  was  legally  constituted,  was  very  closely  in  sympathy 
with  the  party  and  exerted  a  powerful  social  influence  in  its 


234  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

behalf.  Within  less  than  five  years  from  its  foundation,  the 
Patriotic  League  had  attained  a  membership  surpassing  three 
hundred  thousand.826  Less  imposing  in  numerical  strength,  but 
quite  interesting  in  their  way,  were  the  Union  of  Free  Working- 
men  ( Union  des  travailleurs  libres)  82r  and  the  Federal  Unions 
(Unions  federates)  828  of  Catholic  employers,  both  of  which 
supported  the  Popular  Liberal  Party. 

Returning  to  the  party  itself,  we  find  that  in  its  methods  no 
less  than  in  its  organic  structure  it  was  designed  as  a  well-knit, 
powerful  association  rather  than  as  a  loose  political  group. 
Beginning  in  1904  it  held  national  congresses  or  conventions 
(1904,  1905,  1906,  1907,  1908,  1909,  1911,  1912,  1914) 829  at 
which  the  program  of  the  party  was  studied  and  formulated 
with  something  like  scientific  thoroughness.  By  way  of  illus- 
tration, one  might  mention  the  fact  that,  preparatory  to  the 
congress  of  1904,  a  detailed  questionnaire  regarding  the  ques- 
tion of  the  labor-contract  (between  employer  and  workingman) 
and  the  problem  of  workingmen's  pensions  was  sent  out  to  the 
local  committees,  and  an  analysis  made  of  the  replies,  as  a  pre- 
liminary basis  for  the  discussion  of  those  topics  at  the  conven- 
tion.830 

But  the  national  conventions  were  by  no  means  the  sole  or 
even  the  most  important  manifestation  of  the  association's  unity 
and  energy.  In  the  interim  between  the  conventions,  the  Cen- 
tral Committee  continued  its  incessant  labors  of  direction  and 
organization;  the  parliamentary  group  knew  little  rest  in  its 
political  opposition  to  the  Government  or  in  its  legislative  cham- 
pionship of  the  party's  program;  public  speakers  (conferen- 
clers)  were  constantly  engaged  in  carrying  the  propaganda  of 
the  party  into  every  nook  and  corner  of  the  country;  and  by 
the  written  as  well  as  by  the  spoken  word  an  uninterrupted 
campaign  was  waged.  The  party  published  a  weekly  Bulletin 
(Bulletin  hebdomadaire) ,  a  Quarterly  Bulletin  (Bulletin  trim- 
estriel),  popular  tracts,  and  an  almanac.831  In  addition,  many 
local  committees  issued  departmental  or  regional  bulletins ; 
members  and  friends  of  the  party  were  active  on  the  editorial 
staffs  of  many  a  newspaper 832  and  penned  articles  for  period- 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  235 

icals  such  as  the  Correspondent  or  the  Association  catholiquc, 
not  to  mention  books  on  controversial  political  and  social  ques- 
tions. 

Most  striking  and  aggressive  of  all  the  methods  of  action 
adopted  by  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  were  its  Popular  Secre- 
tariats, its  Employment  Bureaus,  its  Industrial  Unions,  its 
People's  Halls,  and  its  Legislative-Political  Museum.  Possibly 
the  political  value  of  social  propaganda  and  of  labor  unions 
was  suggested  by  the  dependence  of  the  Socialist  Party  upon 
"  Red  "  trade  unions ; 833  but  it  may  equally  well  have  been 
suggested  by  de  Mun's  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs,834  which 
antedated  both  the  trade  unions  835  and  the  Socialist  Party  by 
many  years ;  or  it  may  have  been  suggested  by  the  activities  of 
either  the  Belgian  Clerical  Party  or  the  German  Center  Party. 
At  any  rate,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  laid  great  stress  upon 
social  propaganda  as  one  of  its  principal  means  of  action.  It 
urged  its  local  committees  to  found,  and  many  of  its  committees 
did  actually  establish,  secretariats  populaires  —  People's  Secre- 
tariats or  Bureaus  —  which  offered  free  assistance,  advice  and 
information  to  workingmen  about  industrial  or  agricultural 
questions  or  about  the  perplexing  provisions  of  the  tax-laws 
and  the  military  service  law.836  Many  of  the  local  committees 
became  actively  interested  in  the  formation  of  industrial  trade 
unions,  and  of  provident  societies  of  divers  sorts.837  In  some 
of  the  larger  cities,  the  Liberal  Committees  established  People's 
Halls  (Maisons  du  peuple},  where  the  offices  of  the  People's 
Secretariats  might  be  located,  where  workingmen's  organiza- 
tions or  study-clubs  might  find  a  home,  or  lectures  be  given, 
and  where  an  employment  bureau  could  be  maintained.838  The 
employment  bureau,  be  it  remarked,  was  an  audacious  and  an 
original  method  of  party  propaganda.  Dr.  Leon  Jacques,  the 
eminent  student  of  French  political  parties,  has  the  following 
vigorous  commentary  to  make  on  this  point : 

It  is  melancholy  to  note  how,  among  men  of  the  greatest  sincerity, 
political  preoccupations  can  trammel  the  true  practice  of  religious 
sentiments.  The  A.  L.  P.  [Popular  Liberal  Party]  expects  that  the 
possessors  of  the  power  of  employment  (capitalists,  merchants, 


236  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

manufacturers,  landowners  —  and  most  of  them  are  either  Catholics 
or  non-Catholics  who  are  equally  anxious  to  recruit  their 
employees  among  men  of  order  —  and  the  possessors  of  the  power 
of  consumption  will  do  their  duty,  their  imperious  duty,  and  will 
reserve  their  personal  preferences,  their  recommendations  to  their 
friends,  to  their  coreligionists,  to  the  members  of  the  A.  L.  P.  The 
result  would  be,  if  these  instructions  were  followed  to  the  letter, 
that  the  workingmen  or  employees  and  the  merchants  not  belonging 
to  the  A.  L.  P.  would  find  neither  work  nor  clients,  respectively,  in 
circles  sympathetic  to  this  party!  The  A.  L.  P.  is  the  first  political 
organization  in  France,  we  believe,  that  has  introduced  such  con- 
siderations in  the  economic  sphere  and  has  advocated  such  methods 
of  combat  (employment  bureaus  and  lists  of  preferred  trades- 
men).839 

The  originality  and  the  serious  character  of  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  miay  be  seen  also  in  the  establishment,  soon  after 
the  organization  of  the  party,  of  a  Bureau  of  Research  (Section 
d' etudes).  The  Bureau  of  Research,  under  M.  Maze-Sencier's 
direction,  conceived  the  remarkable  idea  that  a  political  organ- 
ization posing  as  the  champion  of  definite  social  and  political 
principles  ought  to  possess  scientific  compilations  of  all  avail- 
able data  regarding  those  principles.  With  industry  equal  to 
his  originality,  M.  Maze-Sencier  and  his  colleagues  set  to  work 
and  not  only  collected  a  library  of  books  on  political  and  social 
problems,  but  also  accumulated  and  classified  public  documents 
—  laws,  bills,  reports,  decrees  —  of  France  and  of  foreign 
countries,  so  that  any  deputy  belonging  to  the  party  might, 
when  drafting  a  bill  or  preparing  a  speech,  avail  himself  in- 
stantly of  a  dossier  or  file  of  documents  on  the  subject  in  hand, 
already  classified.  At  first  the  collection  extended  back  to 
1889;  subsequently  it  was  pushed  still  further  back.  Not  only 
official  documents,  but  even  articles  from  domestic  and  foreign 
journals  and  magazines  were  methodically  collected  and  classi- 
fied. A  careful  record  was  made  of  elections,  and  a  political 
chart  of  France  kept  up  to  date.  A  circulating  library  was 
created.  A  catalogue  of  parliamentary  and  other  documents 
was  published,  and  pamphlets  were  prepared  and  distributed. 
In  its  novel  enterprise  of  laying  a  solid  scientific  foundation 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  237 

for  its  political  program,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  was  un- 
questionably conscientious.8*0 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  A  PROGRAM 

From  the  foregoing  exposition  it  should  be  clear  that  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party,  growing  out  of  the  embryonic  Liberal 
Group  of  1899,  very  rapidly  developed  into  a  highly  organized 
association,  with  a  vigorous  organic  life.  We  are  now  ready 
to  ask  the  question:  toward  what  end  did  the  party  direct  its 
efforts? 

As  one  follows  the  evolution  of  thought  in  his  speeches, 
from  year  to  year,  the  conclusion  is  inevitable  that  Jacques 
Piou,  founder  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  was  at  first  much 
clearer  about  the  general  nature  of  the  party  which  he  was 
creating  than  about  the  details  of  its  program.  On  July  5, 
1901,  when  the  Liberal  Group  was  beginning  to  strengthen  its 
organization  for  the  coming  electoral  conflict  of  1902,  Piou 
delivered  a  "  program  speech,"  841  setting  forth  very  eloquently 
the  mission  and  the  spirit  of  the  group,  but  defining  very 
vaguely  its  legislative  program.  The  supreme  mission  of  the 
Liberal  Group  was  to  combat  "  the  Collectivist-Jacobin-Sec- 
tarian  "  coalition,  i.  e.,  Waldeck-Rousseau's  Anticlerical-Radi- 
cal-Socialist Government.  "  Our  watch-word  is  simple,"  he 
said,  "  it  is :  repulse  the  artisans  of  national  destruction,  and 
chase  them  out  of  office ;  deliver  ourselves  .  .  .  from  counter- 
revolutionists  and  clericals."  The  real  counter-revolutionists, 
he  hastened  to  explain,  were  the  so-called  Republicans  whose 
anticlerical  passions  led  them  to  destroy  liberty ;  the  real  "  cler- 
icalism," most  to  be  feared,  was  Free-Masonry,  which  he  re- 
garded as  an  intolerant  religious  sect  whose  ecclesiastical  poten- 
tates grasped  after  political  power  and  endeavored  to  use  the 
government  to  oppress  other  religions,  particularly  the  Catholic 
religion.  Against  the  Free-Masons  and  the  Socialists,  Piou 
hoped  to  see  a  great  Opposition  bloc  take  shape,  in  which  the 
Liberal  Group  would  be  one  of  the  several  "  army  corps." 

We  who  defend  by  constitutional  methods  842  all  the  ideas  of  order, 


238  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

of  progress,  of  justice,  which  alone  can  assure  to  society  a  stable 
equilibrium, —  we  have  desired  in  our  turn  to  enter  the  fray  and 
to  urge  those  who  are  of  our  way  of  thinking  to  contribute  their 
contingent  of  efforts  in  the  forthcoming  struggle.  I  say,  their  con- 
tingent of  efforts;  for  you  understand,  of  course,  that  we  have  no 
idea  of  marching  forth  to  battle  entirely  by  ourselves;  we  are  only 
one  of  the  corps  of  the  great  electoral  army.  .  .  . 

The  issue,  he  believed,  would  be  clear-cut : 

Whether  you  like  it  or  not,  France  today  is  divided  into  two 
camps :  on  one  side  are  all  the  violent  fanatics,  all  the  Jacobins, 
all  the  bigots,  supported  by  the  Collectivists ;  on  the  other  side  are 
all  the  patriots,  all  the  independents,  all  the  liberals,  all  the  mod- 
erates supported  by  the  conservatives'.  Henceforth  it  must  be  a 
choice  between  one  and  the  other  of  these  camps.  The  time  for 
hesitation  and  for  diffidence  is  past. 

In  his  speech  of  July  5,  1901,  Piou  seemed  convinced  that 
the  Liberal  Group  should  be  just  one  of  the  army  corps  in  the 
mighty  host  of  the  Opposition;  but  a  few  months  later  he 
seemed  to  have  a  more  ambitious  vision  of  a  huge  liberal  and 
Catholic  association  somewhat  like  the  German  Center  or  the 
Belgian  Clerical  Party,  the  largest  parties  of  Germany  and 
Belgium  respectively. 

Over  and  above  all  individual  enterprises,  there  is  a  general,  col- 
lective enterprise  which  would  soon  modify  the  forces  and  the 
equilibrium  of  the  parties.  Can  you  imagine  what  would  be  the 
power  of  an  immense  association  grouping  under  a  single  banner, 
in  a  single  effort,  towards  a  single  goal,  the  advocates  of  the  most 
popular  of  all  liberties,  the  liberty  of  conscience?  It  would  very 
soon  count  its  adherents  by  the  thousands  and  thousands.  It  would 
very  soon  radiate  throughout  the  entirety  of  France.  Men  of  the 
North  and  men  of  the  South,  rich  and  poor,  savants  and  working- 
men,  intellectuals  and  peasants,  all  would  form  just  an  immense 
army  corps,  capable  of  resisting  the  allied  forces  of  Free-Masonry 
and  Collectivism,  and  of  sweeping  away  at  the  first  onslaught  bour- 
geois Radicalism  with  its  stale  claptrap  and  its  threadbare 
shams.  .  .  . 

Those  who  doubt  it  do  not  even  need  to  thumb  the  pages  of 
history,  although  for  that  matter  every  page  of  history  tells  the 
story  of  the  miracles  accomplished  by  free  association.  Merely  let 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  239 

them  look  across  our  frontiers  to  the  East  and  to  the  North  and 
they  will  see  how  the  Belgians,  defeated,  crushed,  have  accom- 
plished the  most  audacious  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  fecund 
political  and  social  reforms;  how  the  German  Center  after  getting 
the  better  of  the  Kulturkampf  and  of  the  Iron  Chancellor  himself, 
made  itself  the  arbiter  of  the  parties. 

The  day  that  France  has  her  people's  association,843  the  reign  of 
the  bigots  will  be  ended. 

But  an  organization  can  succeed  only  on  a  double  condition : 
severe  discipline,  a  precise  program.844 

Though  he  had  no  program  to  offer,  indeed,  he  stoutly  main- 
tained that  a  successful  program  "  must  be  the  work  of  neither 
one  man,  nor  of  one  group,"  but  a  joint  product.  Piou  was 
acutely  conscious  that  a  program  was  vitally  necessary.  "  A 
program,"  he  said,  "  which  corresponds  to  the  problems  occu- 
pying public  opinion  and  to  the  interests  which  move  the  masses 
is  the  necessary  bond  of  every  association  which  desires  to  live." 
Again, —  "  A  long  campaign  is  not  a  guerilla  warfare ;  it  pre- 
supposes a  plan  concerted  in  advance  and  followed  out."  The 
general  spirit  of  the  program  he  indicated  in  his  peroration, 
when  he  exhorted  his  hearers: 

You  are  being  denounced  to  your  country  as  the  spoiled  children 
of  the  great  national  family,  as  morose  stragglers  whose  eyes  are 
ever  turned  backward,  toward  the  Past.  Tell  the  country,  prove 
to  the  country,  that  you  are  its  loyal  sons,  its  ardent  servants,  that 
you  love  all  that  it  loves, —  social  justice,  scientific  progress,  polit- 
ical liberty, —  and  that  your  supreme  ambition  is  to  be  of  assistance 
in  its  onward  march  toward  the  light  and  toward  fraternity.845 

More  definite  are  Piou's  ideas  in  his  Rheims  speech,  January 
26,  1902.  He  declares  that  the  mission  of  the  Liberal  Group 
is  to  restore  respect  for  justice,  to  put  the  army  above  politics, 
to  establish  equality  before  the  law  (in  other  words,  to  repeal 
the  provisions  of  the  Associations  Law  which  denied  to  mo- 
nastic orders  the  rights  enjoyed  by  other  associations),  to  estab- 
lish liberty  of  conscience  without  privilege,  in  short,  "  to  repair 
all  the  evil  which  has  been  done  "  and  to  "  substitute  for  the 
Jacobin  Republic  the  Liberal  Republic."  In  passing,  he  paid 


240  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

his  respects  to  the  Government's  progressive  inheritance-tax  bill. 
The  Government,  it  seemed,  had  planned  to  subject  even  very 
small  inheritances  to  the  tax,  but  had  been  unduly  generous 
toward  multi-millionaires  by  refusing  to  extend  the  principle 
of  progress! vity  above  the  million  mark,  whereas  Piou  had 
advocated  the  exemption  of  small  inheritances  (under  2,000 
francs)  and  the  imposition  of  progressive  supertaxes  on  in- 
heritances above  a  million.846 

Count  Albert  de  Mun  likewise  inveighed  against  the  rule 
of  the  "  Jacobins "  and  Socialists.  Ever  more  interested  in 
social  matters  than  was  Piou,  de  Mun  dealt  in  detail  with  the 
social-economic  policy  of  the  Government  and  pointed  out  that 
much  if  not  all  of  the  really  valuable  constructive  work  of  the 
Socialist  minister,  Millerand,  had  been  prepared  by  his  prede- 
cessors. The  application  of  the  accident  compensation  law 
was  a  case  in  point ;  or,  to  take  another  example,  Millerand's 
idea  of  establishing  trade  boards  (conseils  du  travail)  and  of 
making  part  of  the  Superior  Trade  Board  (Conseil  superieur  du 
travail)  elective  had  long  been  advocated  in  principle  by  Catho- 
lics. Millerand's  law  on  industrial  disputes  and  arbitration, 
declared  the  Catholic  orator,  was  distasteful  both  to  working- 
men  and  to  employers ;  Millerand  might  have  profited  by  bor- 
rowing the  Social  Catholic  scheme  of  industrial  conciliation 
along  with  the  idea  of  industrial  representation.847  Summariz- 
ing his  program,  de  Mun  declared,  "  We  are  determined  to 
protect  religion  against  the  bigots,  the  nation  against  the  cos- 
mopolites who  menace  it,  the  people  against  those  who  deceive 
them  in  order  to  exploit  them  and  profit  thereby."  848 

Vague  in  its  constructive  program  and  immature  in  its  organ- 
ization, the  Liberal  Group  went  into  the  elections  of  1902  with 
one  guiding  principle  very  clearly  conceived  and  faithfully  fol- 
lowed,—  to  fight  in  alliance  with  the  other  moderate  and  con- 
servative groups  against  the  anticlerical  and  Socialist  coalition. 
"If  the  moderates  remain  divided,  or  even  scattered,  they  are 
lost,"  declared  the  Liberal  Group's  campaign  manifesto.  "  In 
opposition  to  the  Ministerial  and  Collectivist  coalition  there 
must  be  a  patriotic  and  liberal  coalition."  In  many  constitu- 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  241 

encies  the  policy  of  moderate  coalition  was  very  successfully 
practised  by  the  Liberal  Group,  the  Opposition  Progressists, 
and  the  Nationalists.849 

The  result  of  the  elections  was  such  as  to  encourage  the  new 
group  to  adhere  to  its  general  policy  and  to  elaborate  its  organ- 
ization and  program.  In  the  expiring  legislature,  the  Liberal 
Group  had  claimed  the  allegiance,  at  one  time  or  another,  of 
more  than  seventy  Deputies,  but  as  almost  a  score  of  these 
proved  disloyal,  the  group  hardly  comprised  more  than  fifty-six 
or  fifty-seven  members.  Now  although  sixteen  of  these  mem- 
bers were  defeated  in  the  election  of  1902  (mostly  by  Radicals 
and  Radical-Socialists,  but  a  few  by  Republicans  and  two  or 
three  by  Socialists),850  besides  three  lost  by  retirement  and 
one  by  death,  nevertheless  the  Liberal  Group  as  a  whole  regis- 
tered noteworthy  gains,  and  the  election  of  thirty-six  new  mem- 
bers, not  in  the  preceding  legislature,  more  than  counter- 
balanced the  losses.  With  old  members  reelected,  members 
newly  elected,  and  converts  from  other  groups,  the  Liberal 
Group  in  the  new  legislature  boasted  no  less  than  eighty  Depu- 
ties,851 —  a  gain  of  more  than  twenty  members,  or  forty  per 
cent. 

The  electoral  victories  of  the  Liberals,  it  is  interesting  to 
note,  were  mostly  at  the  expense  of  the  moderate  Republicans 
and  Radicals ;  whereas  the  nine  new  converts  came,  with  two 
exceptions,  from  the  Extreme  Right  or  from  the  Nationalists. 
Thanks  in  no  small  part  to  the  fresh  vigor  displayed  by  the 
Liberal  Group,  the  Right  as  a  whole  (including  "  Conserva- 
tives," "Nationalists,"  and  "rallies")  regained  some  of  the 
ground  it  had  lost  in  previous  elections.  In  1898  it  had 
comprised  only  94  members;  in  1902  it  comprised  119.  And 
in  addition,  the  large  "  Progressist "  fraction,  including  Meline, 
Ribot,  and  Poincare,  which  had  broken  off  from  the  moderate 
Republican  group,  and  opposed  the  Waldeck-Rousseau  minis- 
try, might  be  counted  as  lending  the  support  of  its  127  votes  to 
the  Right,  on  certain  questions.  Of  the  moderates  who  sup- 
ported the  Government,  only  sixty-two  held  their  seats.  .  The 
Radicals,  to  be  sure,  gained  eight  new  seats,  and  the  Radical- 


242  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Socialists  forty-three;  but  the  Socialists  suffered  a  severe  re- 
verse, losing  fourteen  of  their  fifty-seven  seats.  Altogether, 
the  coalition, —  which  became  known  to  history  as  the  bloc, — 
of  62  Republicans,  233  Radicals  and  Radical-Socialists,  and  43 
Socialists,  upholding  the  Government,  could  muster  338  votes, 
as  opposed  to  the  252  votes  of  the  Opposition  groups  (5  dis- 
sident Radicals,  127  Progressists,  35  rallies,  43  Nationalists, 
and  42  Conservatives,  according  to  the  official  communique). &5Z 
The  Liberal  Group  was  a  sort  of  leaven  permeating  the 
various  other  opposition  groups,  since  some  of  its  adherents 
were  Conservatives,  some  Nationalists,  some  rallies,  some  Pro- 
gressists, at  the  same  time  that  they  were  Liberals.  This  situ- 
ation was  most  promising.  The  Liberal  Group  bade  fair  to 
become  the  organizing  spirit,  the  nucleus  of  an  Opposition  bloc 
which  might  realize  Piou's  long-cherished  dream  of  a  great 
conservative-liberal  party,  a  party  favorable  to  social  and  polit- 
ical reforms  but  opposed  to  Revolution,  favorable  to  religious 
liberty  and  opposed  to  the  establishment  of  Free-Thinking  and 
Free-Masonry  as  state  religions,  favorable  to  patriotism  and 
opposed  to  anti-militarism.  Said  Piou,  when  the  first  returns 
of  the  elections  became  known, 

A  mere  sketch  of  an  organization,  begun  almost  under  the  enemy's 
fire,  has  sufficed  to  check,  sharply,  the  progress  of  the  Socialistic 
Radicalism  in  the  nation.  A  more  complete  organization  would  soon 
assure  the  defeat  of  Socialistic  Radicalism:  this  organization  is  the 
task  of  tomorrow.  It  will  be  accomplished.853 

Perhaps  it  was  a  real  advantage,  for  the  organization  of  the 
Liberals,  that  their  leader,  Jacques  Piou,  was  defeated  in  the 
elections  of  1902.  However  unwelcome  his  relief  from  parlia- 
mentary duties  may  have  been,  it  afforded  him  an  opportunity 
to  devote  his  entire  energy  to  the  enormous  task  of  creating  the 
first  well-organized,  legally-constituted  political  party  in  the 
history  of  France.  The  result,  the  organization  of  the  party, 
is  already  known  to  us.  It  remains  to  be  seen  how  with  the 
organization  the  program  developed. 

When  the  first  regular  national  convention  of  the  Popular 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  243 

Liberal  Party  assembled  at  Paris  in  1904,  the  Party  had,  prop- 
erly speaking,  no  detailed  constructive  program  of  social  and 
political  reforms.  In  the  constitution  (Statuts,  art.  2)  of  the 
party,  to  be  sure,  we  read  that 

The  Popular  Liberal  Party  has  for  its  aim  to  defend  public 
liberties  on  the  basis  of  loyalty  to  the  Republican  form  of  govern- 
ment [sur  le  terrain  constitutionnel],  by  all  legal  means,  particularly 
by  electoral  propaganda ;  to  favor  legislative  reforms,  to  create  or 
develop  benevolent  societies  and  social  institutions;  to  ameliorate 
the  condition  of  the  working  classes. 

Moreover,  de  Mun  and  a  few  other  Social  Catholics  among  the 
Liberal  ranks  had  their  own  distinctive  program  of  social 
reconstruction.  And  Piou,  as  well  as  other  Liberals,  had 
spoken  eloquently  of  the  defense  of  liberty,  of  the  army,  of  the 
workingmen's  interests, —  but  usually  in  a  negative  sense  or 
in  general  terms.  The  party  as  a  whole  still  lacked  an  official 
program  of  specific  constructive  reforms. 

A  valiant  beginning  was  made  by  the  first  party  convention 
Paris,  1904). 854  Thanks  to  the  happy  device  of  sending  out  a 
questionnaire  to  the  local  committees  and  analyzing  the  returns 
systematically,  in  advance  of  the  congress,  it  was  possible  for 
the  assembled  delegates  to  formulate  their  views  with  but  little 
wrangling  and  without  resort  to  that  oracular  vagueness  which 
the  Unified  Socialists  have  sometimes  employed  to  conceal  their 
differences.  Resolutions  were  adopted  favoring  Old  Age  Pen- 
sions for  Workingmen  (and  specifying  the  method  of  organiz- 
ing the  pension  fund),855  legal  recognition  of  collective  bar- 
gaining in  industry,  Sunday  rest,  a  law  rendering  an  attempt 
at  conciliation  obligatory  in  industrial  disputes,  a  law  regarding 
the  discharge  of  employees,  a  law  regulating  payment  of  wages 
in  kind,  certain  important  extensions  of  the  legal  capacity  of  the 
trade-unions,  completion  and  codification  of  labor  legislation.856 
A  series  of  interesting  constitutional  reforms  was  proposed: 
among  them,  proportional  representation  with  the  scrutin  de 
liste;  a  law  obliging  all  voters  to  vote ;  the  restriction  of  cam- 
paign placards  to  certain  spaces,  equal  for  all  parties;  the  use 


244  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

of  identical  paper  for  ballots  of  all  parties  and  the  enclosure 
of  the  ballot  in  an  envelope  (in  order  to  put  an  end  to  the 
notorious  violation  of  the  secrecy  of  the  ballot  by  the  use  of 
distinctive  ballots  for  Government  candidates)  ;  observation  of 
the  ballot-counting  by  watchers,  equal  in  number  for  each 
party.857 

Each  convention,  thereafter,  set  itself  the  task  of  elaborating 
•the  party  program,  a  few  details  at  a  time.  For  example,  the 
Convention  of  1905  devoted  special  attention  to  the  problem 
of  educational  institutions  and  to  the  problem  of  labor  organ- 
ization ;  most  interesting  was  the  resolution  adopted  at  this  time, 
favoring  parallel  trade-unions  of  workers  and  employers,  with 
mixed  boards  as  bonds  of  union.858  The  convention  of  1906 
extended  the  party  platform  by  laying  down  planks  on  the 
legal  limitation  of  the  maximum  working-day,  on  vocational 
training,  on  electoral  frauds,  on  the  desirability  of  writing  a 
Declaration  of  Rights  into  the  Constitution,  of  creating  a  Su- 
preme Court,  of  altering  the  method  of  presidential  elections, 
on  professional  representation,  on  the  verification  of  legislative 
elections  by  the  Supreme  Court,  on  the  referendum,  and  on 
decentralization.859 

In  the  convention  of  1908  ten  "  fundamental  principles  "  were 
adopted  as  the  basis  of  a  draft  for  revision  of  the  national  con- 
stitution. The  principles  were: 

1.  The  necessity  of  harmonizing  the  prescriptions   of   the 
constitution  with  the  moral  law  and  with  those  of  the  natural 
laws,  the  application  of  which  is  most  favorable  to  man,  and 
consequently  to  societies ; 

2.  Recognition  of  the  Republic  as  the  form  of  Government 
accepted  by  the  country ; 

3.  Electoral  reform,  proportional  representation,  scrutin  de 
liste,  obligatory  and  secret  voting. 

4.  Principle  of  decentralization  and  regionalism. 

5.  Professional  organizations  and  trade-boards. 

6.  Constitution  of  a  central  executive  power  and  modifica- 
tion of  the  mode  of  election  and  the  powers  of  the  president 
of  the  Republic. 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  245 

7.  Maintenance  of  the  principle  of  the  two  Chambers,  with 
representation  of  interests  by  the  Senate. 

8.  Establishment,  at  the  summit  of  the  organization  of  the 
country,  of  a  Supreme  Court  to  protect  public  liberties  and  to 
guard  the  Constitution. 

9.  Right  of  constitutional  revision. 

10.  "  The   convention    furthermore   resolves   that   a   special 
committee  of  five  members  .  .  .  shall  be  joined  to  the  Committee 
of  Social  Studies,  to  collaborate  on  the  preparation  of  succes- 
sive reports  on  each  of  the  articles  of  the  draft  constitution 
and  to  submit  them  to  later  conventions,  and,  subsequently,  to 
the  judgment  of  public  opinion."  86° 

The  convention  of  1909,  continuing  the  work,  dealt  with  the 
important  problems  of  the  minimum  wage,  professional  repre- 
sentation, and  the  status  of  government  employees.861  That  of 
1911  adopted  resolutions  in  favor  of  the  referendum,  arbitra- 
tion and  conciliation  boards,  old-age  pensions,  and  state  sub- 
vention of  schools  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  scholars.802 
It  is  hardly  necessary,  in  this  connection,  further  to  amplify 
the  list;  the  manner  in  which  the  program  developed  should 
already  be  sufficiently  clear. 

In  short,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  evolving  from  the 
Liberal  Group,  however  vaguely  its  program  and  character  may 
have  been  conceived  at  the  outset,  in  course  of  time  not  only 
became  elaborated  into  an  organization  which  furnished  a  model 
to  other  French  political  groups,  but  also  worked  out  a  con- 
structive program  which,  regardless  of  its  strength  or  weakness 
in  other  respects,  was  unequalled  by  that  of  any  other  French 
political  party  in  scope  and  precision. 

In  a  sense,  the  program  was  not  original,  at  least  in  its  ele- 
ments. Proportional  representation,  certainly,  was  not  a  nov- 
elty. Professional  representation  had  long  been  advocated  by 
certain  Monarchists.863  The  organization  of  industry  by  paral- 
lel trade-unions,  with  mixed  boards,  was  a  favorite  idea  of  the 
Social  Catholics.  And  so  one  might  continue.  But  the  virtue 
of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  was  its  ability  to  prepare  a 
synthesis  and  a  practical  expression  of  these  ideas,  and  to  im- 


246  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

pose  that  synthesis  upon  a  heterogeneous  group  of  Catholic 
politicians  as  a  working  program.  In  this  circumstance  lay  the 
great  service  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  to  Social  Catholi- 
cism ;  for  the  first  time,  French  Social  Catholic  principles,  with 
slight  modifications,  were  proclaimed  by  an  effective  political 
organization. 

SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  INFLUENCE  ON  THE  PROGRAM 

When  the  program  of  social  reforms  advocated  by  Count 
Albert  de  Mun  and  other  Social  Catholics  during  the  'eighties 
and  'nineties  is  compared  with  the  program  adopted  by  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  in  the  first  decade  of  the  new  century, 
a  remarkable  similarity  appears,  a  similarity  so  striking  that 
the  historian  must  instinctively  connect  the  two  programs  and 
ask  himself  whether  the  second  was  evolved  from  the  first,  and 
in  what  manner. 

The  question  has  already  been  answered,  in  part.  The 
Liberal  Group  'formed  by  Jacques  Piou  in  the  legislature  of 
1898-1902,  with  little  or  no  program  except  of  constitutional 
opposition  to  Waldeck-Rousseau's  coalition  of  anticlericalism 
and  Socialism,  happened  to  include  a  few  men  like  de  Mun, 
de  Gailhard-Bancel,  and  de  Grandmaison,  who  had  not  only 
contagious  enthusiasm  but  also  a  definite,  well-matured  pro- 
gram of  Social  Catholic  reforms.  Count  de  Mun's  prestige 
and  eloquence  gave  additional  weight  to  the  Social  Catholic 
program.  Some  of  the  other  elements  in  the  group  were  indif- 
ferent to  social  reform ;  some  inclined  toward  the  individualistic 
doctrine  of  non-intervention;  but  none  had  a  rival  program 
which  could  stand  comparison  with  that  of  the  Social  Catholics. 
It  was  inevitable  that  the  merely  Catholic  elements  of  the 
group  should  be  leavened  by  Social  Catholicism.  The  addition 
of  the  adjective  "  Popular  "  to  the  name  of  the  group  in  1902, 
and  the  insertion  in  the  party's  constitution  of  the  words,  "  to 
ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  working  classes,"  were  evidence 
of  the  growing  influence  of  the  Social  Catholics. 

The  organizer  and  president  of  the  party,  Jacques  Piou,  who 
had  hitherto  appeared  to  be  more  interested  in  purely  political 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  247 

and  ecclesiastical  questions,  now  began  to  concern  himself  more 
and  more  actively  with  the  social  problem.  When  Piou  had 
dealt  with  the  social  problems  in  1901  it  had  been  to  denounce 
the  socialists.  Speaking  before  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
Societe  d'economie  sociale,  May  30,  1901,  he  accused  socialism 
of  being  the  chief  cause  of  class  antagonism,  and  he  urged  his 
hearers  (who,  by  the  way,  represented  the  extremely  timid  wing 
of  the  Social  Catholic  movement,  if  indeed  they  could  be  called 
Social  Catholics  at  all)  to  struggle  with  all  their  might  against 
the  menace  of  socialism,  which  would  establish 

materialism  in  place  of  religion,  militias  armed  with  intelligent 
bayonets  in  place  of  permanent  armies,  the  State  as  an  educational 
institution  [l'£tat  educateur]  in  place  of  the  family,  free  love  in 
place  of  the  family,  capital  under  the  domination  of  the  labor  union, 
taxes  with  the  object  of  equalizing  wealth,  the  levelling  of  all 
classes  by  law,  and  finally  the  idea  of  patriotism  evaporating  into 
I  know  not  what  cosmopolitan  sentimentalism. 

Even  the  most  promising  passage  of  his  speech  was  very  vague : 

If  this  socialist  movement  had  no  other  aim  than  to  obtain  for  labor 
its  legitimate  share  in  the  production  of  wealth,  to  multiply  chari- 
table and  provident  institutions,  to  leave  the  field  open  for  col- 
lective or  individual  initiative,  to  render  the  acquisition  of  property 
and  capital  easier  by  means  of  thrift  and  mutual  aid,  an  agreement 
[entente]  could  soon  be  effected  and  social  peace  would  not  be  a 
hope  which  has  almost  become  a  dream.  Today  where  is  the  man 
so  unfeeling  that  he  has  no  compassion  for  the  condition  of  the 
workingmen  who  are  confronted  each  morning  with  the  problem  of 
obtaining  their  daily  bread,  and  in  whose  path  both  destitution  and 
unemployment  lie  in  wait?  Where  is  the  employer  so  forgetful  of 
his  interests  and  of  his  duties  as  not  to  respect  the  liberty,  the  in- 
terests, the  rights  of  his  workingmen?  Where  is  the  politician 
who  does  not  take  pride  in  embodying  in  our  laws,  and  through 
the  laws,  in  our  customs,  this  sentiment  of  solidarity,  this  spirit 
of  justice,  which  are  the  guarantees  of  social  harmony?804 

It  is  only  fair  to  add  that  the  orator  hastened  to  daub  a  few 
streaks  of  qualifying  realism  over  the  too  roseate  picture  he 
had  just  painted.  Many  of  these  well-wishers,  he  feared,  were 
"  more  sincere  than  active,"  and  the  masses,  misled  by  social- 


248  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

istic  "  illusions,"  seemed  determined  to  hurl  themselves  in  vain 
against  "the  power  of  facts,  the  resistance  of  reason,  and  of 
economic  laws."  Consequently  "  the  antagonism  between  capi- 
tal and  labor  becomes  more  embittered  every  day."  865 

Two  months  later,  in  another  speech  to  the  Societe  d' economic 
sociale,  he  heaped  more  crushing  denunciations  upon  the  so- 
cialists, accusing  them  of  wishing  to  substitute  free  love  for 
marriage.  He  warned  his  hearers  that  "  the  crusade  of  athe- 
ism [apparently  referring  to  socialism,  one  infers  from  the 
context],  which  pursues  relentlessly  its  satanic  mission,  no 
longer  confines  itself  to  attacking  the  child  and  the  working- 
man,  but  now  attacks  the  young  girl  and  the  married  woman. 
The  enemies  of  the  social  order  have  thoroughly  grasped  the 
fact  that  they  will  triumph  only  when  they  have  conquered  the 
women."  In  passing,  he  asserted  that  the  Old  Age  Pensions 
Bill  then  before  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  was  laudable  and 
necessary  in  its  purpose,  but  false  and  socialistic  in  its 
method.866 

In  1903,  however,  we  find  Piou  dealing  with  the  social  prob- 
lem in  a  much  more  constructive  spirit.  Though  his  principles 
may  have  remained  unaltered,  his  emphasis  has  shifted ;  whereas 
in  1901,  his  words  were  the  words  of  a  disciple  of  Le  Play, 
placing  chief  emphasis  upon  provident  societies  among  the 
workingmen  and  paternal  benevolence  among  the  employers, 
as  the  alternative  of  socialism,  his  speeches  in  1903  have  more 
of  a  Social  Catholic  ring,  and  with  the  Social  Catholic  he  places 
emphasis  upon  the  necessity  of  social  legislation  and  of  indus- 
trial organization.  Socialism  is  now  described  not  as  the  in- 
carnation of  "  atheism  "  but  as  a  "  warning  and  a  punishment 
to  societies  materially  opulent  but  morally  bankrupt."  867  The 
great  "  error  of  the  century  just  ended  was  to  ignore,  too  fre- 
quently, the  importance  of  social  responsibility."  To  the  prob- 
lem of  social  justice  the  Catholics  must  give  their  immediate 
attention. 

If  the  violent  conflict  joined  between  the  Jacobin  policy  and  the 
Liberal  policy  should  cause  us  to  forget  the  poverty,  the  sufferings, 
the  injustices  which  surround  us,  our  indifference  would  serve  the 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  249 

cause  of  the  destructionists  [the  Socialists]  better  than  does  their 
own  indefatigable  activity. 

And  the  Liberals  must  strive  to  remedy  the  maladies  of 
modern  capitalistic  society  not  merely  by  preaching  benevolence 
and  thrift!  Trade  unions  must  be  fostered,  and  social  legisla- 
tion promoted.  On  the  subject  of  social  legislation  his  remarks 
were  particularly  significant.  France,  he  said,  should 

press  forward  to  the  goal  and  complete  her  social  legislation, 
founding  it  upon  this  double  basis :  obligation  in  matters  touching 
general  interests  placed  under  the  guardianship  of  the  State ;  liberty 
in  all  those  matters  touching  private  rights  and  interests. 

As  for  the  role  of  the  Liberals, — 

I  hope  that  our  friends  of  the  Liberal  Party  [Action  Liberate], 
the  progress  of  which  is  so  rapid,  may  some  day  have  the  oppor- 
tunity to  put  the  finishing  touches  on  this  legislation,  and  that  in 
the  meantime  it  should  be  the  subject  of  their  chief  concern  and  the 
basis  of  the  program  which  they  will  submit  to  the  country  when 
the  time  comes  [for  an  election]. 

Moreover,  he  did  not  disdain  to  enter  into  details  —  pointing 
out  how  shamefully  social  reforms  had  been  neglected,  and  how 
much  remained  to  be  done.  The  law  of  1864  permitting  labor 
coalitions  was  "the  A  B  C  of  justice";  the  law  of  1884  legal- 
izing trade-unions  was  a  "  tardy  victory  (revanche)  of  the 
ancient  rights  of  labor  over  the  sophisms  of  the  Revolutionary 
philosophy." 

How  many  years  and  how  many  injustices  it  required  before 
women  and  children  were  effectively  protected  against  the  excesses 
of  homicidal  overwork?  It  is  hardly  five  years  ago  that  mutual  aid 
societies  obtained  a  charter  which  might  be  called  almost  liberal. 
As  for  the  law  on  old  age  pensions,  that  is  still  to  be  enacted. 

Another  thing  which  is  still  to  be  done,  is  the  creation  of  an 
Industrial  Code.  Property  has  its  code,  commerce  also ;  both 
voluminous  and  bulky.  There  are  a  number  of  rural  codes  and  a 
forest  code ;  but  the  code  of  the  laborers  is  not  yet  in  existence.  .  .  . 

The  wage-contract  is  nowhere  defined  and  regulated ;  no  legal 
representation  is  assured  to  the  workingmen,  the  famous  trade 


250  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

boards  conceived  by  M.  Millerand  being  still-born;  no  gratuitous 
and  expeditious  jurisdiction  save  the  very  incomplete  jurisdiction 
of  the  trade-boards,868  which  does  not  include  clerks  —  protects 
them  against  the  ruinous  delays  of  ordinary  justice.  .  .  . 

Arbitration  exists  only  in  name.  .  .  . 

As  for  the  trade-unions,  they  are  not  permitted  to  unite  in  groups, 
or  to  engage  in  commerce,  or  to  possess  property,  the  bill  which 
granted  them  these  rights  having  been  cast,  together  with  its  elder 
brother  regarding  trade-boards,  into  the  oubliettes  of  parliament. 
.  .  .  What  they  could  be,  what  they  would  be,  these  trade-unions 
[syndicats]  under  a  regime  of  wise  and  prudent  liberty,  my  friend 
M.  de  Gailhard-Bancel  has  told  you  with  that  ardent  conviction  and 
that  high  competency  which  have  made  him  one  of  the  initiators 
and  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  unionist  movement  in  France. 

There  is  a  domain  where  law  is  sovereign,  a  domain  which  is 
placed  under  the  direct  protection  of  the  law;  it  is  the  domain  of 
major  social  interests,  such  as  hygiene,  safety,  morality,  assistance; 
how  many  parts  of  this  domain  remain  unexplored  ? 869 

In  1904,  Piou  gives  voice  to  the  emphatic  statement:  "  If  State 
Socialism  is  a  peril,  the  complete  abstention  of  the  state  is  a 
desertion.  The  law  must  not  only  arm  individual  and  collective 
initiatives  with  powerful  means  of  action ;  it  has  also  the  duty 
of  regulation,  even  of  constraint,  in  all  matters  touching  hygiene 
and  safety,  protection  of  the  weak  and  repression  of  abuses."  87° 
If  we  allow  two  more  years  to  elapse,  and  then  once  more 
measure  the  Liberal  leader's  progress,  we  find  that  by  1906 
he  has  arrived  at  a  point  where  his  social  program  is  definite, 
precise,  confident,  constructive.  "  In  the  face  of  the  growing 
antagonism  between  capital  and  labor,"  he  writes,  the  Popular 
Liberty  Party 

desires  to  play  the  part  of  the  peace-maker,  by  assisting  to  restore 
fraternity  in  our  manners  and  customs,  and  justice  in  our  laws. 

In  its  conferences,  in  its  journals,  in  its  conventions,  it  studies 
and  advocates  the  reforms  which  appear  to  it  to  correspond  best  to 
the  wants  and  aspirations  of  industrial  democracy :  labor  legislation 
and  trade  boards,  trade  organization  and  labor  representation,  the 
right  of  property  for  trade  unions,  obligatory  conciliation  of  indus- 
trial disputes,  Sunday  rest,  limitation  of  the  working-day  for  women 
and  children,  workingmen's  pensions,  etc. 

At  the  same  time  it  constantly  appeals  to  the  initiative  of  its  com- 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  251 

mittees  and  of  its  adherents  for  the  creation  of  social  service 
institutions,  people's  bureaus,  mutual  societies,  popular  libraries 
and  clubs,  loan  funds,  dwellings,  workingmen's  gardens,  etc. 
To  facilitate  the  establishment  of  such  institutions,  it  [the 
party]  has  a  Research  Committee,  admirably  organized,  always  ready 
to  place  at  the  disposal  of  its  friends  information  about  everything 
that  is  being  done  in  France  and  abroad,  complete  documents  re- 
garding all  sorts  of  social  institutions,  and  model  constitutions  and 
by-laws. 

The  party's  dominant  idea  is  that  the  hour  has  come  to  leave  the 
realm  of  speculation  to  enter  into  that  of  practical  applications.  All 
these  questions  have  been  studied  thoroughly:  the  social  program  of 
the  Catholics  has  been  worked  out  again  and  again.  Those  who 
are  still  searching  for  it,  dwell  in  the  clouds. 

There  is  not  a  meeting  of  the  Young  Men's  Association,  not  a 
congress,  not  a  social  week  [i.  c.,  a  week's  course  of  popular  lec- 
tures in  sociology]  at  which  the  program  is  not  developed,  elab- 
orated, with  an  abundance  of  details  which  leaves  nothing  in  ob- 
scurity. 

What  is  lacking  is  not  a  program,  it  is  the  realization  of  the  pro- 
gram.871 

What  contributed,  probably  as  much  as  anything  else,  to 
lend  precision  to  the  social  program  of  Piou  and  his  party,  was 
the  vigorous  campaign  waged  by  the  Social  Catholic  writers 
who  contributed  to  the  Association  catholique  —  the  magazine 
founded  as  the  organ  of  the  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  and 
devoted  to  social  questions.872  In  1898,  on  the  eve  of  the  for- 
mation of  the  Liberal  Group,  the  Association  catholique  ex- 
horted the  Catholic  Deputies  in  the  Chamber  not  to  content 
themselves  with  strengthening  the  old  Liberal  Left  Center,  but 
to  raise  their  own  distinctive  standard  of  Catholic  Social  re- 
forms.873 This,  it  will  be  observed,  was  exactly  what  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  undertook  to  do.  Again,  in  1899,  the 
editor  of  the  Association  catholique,  Henri  Savatier,  warned  the 
Catholics,  who  were  at  that  moment  rejoicing  over  the  forma- 
tion of  their  Catholic  Federation  for  campaign  purposes,  that, 

"  Catholic  electoral  organization  is  doubtless  very  necessary,  but  it 
will  not  produce  serious  and  lasting  results  unless  it  is  in  a  posi- 
tion to  reap  the  fruits  of  social  action."  874 


252  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Almost  literally  this  advice  became  the  fundamental  idea  of  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party;  for  the  Party  devoted  itself  so  earnestly 
to  social  work  as  a  foundation  for  political  propaganda  that  it 
was  really  more  than  a  political  party ;  —  as  a  literal  translation 
of  its  name  would  suggest,  it  was  an  association  for  Popular 
Liberal  Action  (Action  Liberale  Populaire),  social  and  political. 
Not  only  did  the  Social  Catholic  organ  point  out  in  advance 
the  general  path  which  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  followed  in 
fact ;  the  social  program  no  less  than  the  general  tactics  of  the 
Party  were  foreshadowed  in  the  Association  catholiquc. 
Commencing  with  the  issue  of  November  15,  1895,  the  maga- 
zine always  published  in  the  front  of  each  number  a  "  Pro- 
gram," which  had  been  decided  upon  by  the  editors  on  June  15, 
1895.  The  "  fundamental  reform,"  according  to  this  Program, 
was  the  "  corporative  reorganization  of  Society  " —  *.  e.,  the 
reconstruction  in  modern  form  of  the  medieval  organization  of 
trades  into  guilds  or  corporations.  This  fundamental  idea,  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  inscribed  at  the  head  of  its  own  social 
program.  The  Association  catholique's  Program  also  included 
a  series  of  other  reforms  which  might  be  realized  immediately 
before  the  slow  process  of  social  reconstruction  was  com- 
pleted. These  reforms  were: 

II.  "  Liberty  of  the  Church  in  its  establishment,  in  its  re- 
cruitment, in  its  instruction."     The  Popular  Liberal  Party,  it 
will  be  observed,  demanded  the  same  liberty  for  the  Church. 

III.  Preservation  of  the  family  by  recognition  of  the  indis- 
solubility  of  the  marriage  bond  and  the  rights  of  the  father 
and  by  protection  of  the  home. 

IV.  The    organization    of    trades    in    autonomous    bodies 
(corps'). 

V.  The  grant  of  additional  legal  rights  and  capacities  to  trade 
unions  (whether  composed  of  laborers  or  of  employers  or  of 
both),  "  the  right  of  owning  property,  as  extensive  as  the  needs 
of  association  require";  "the  right  of  professional  jurisdiction 
over  their  members  " ;  the  right  of  representation  before  the 
government.     Trade  unions  which  "  unite  without  confusing 
the  different  elements  (i,  e.,  capital  and  labor)  of  the  profession 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  253 

should  have  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  Boards,  and  should 
be  empowered  to  draft  regulations  which,  when  approved  by  a 
referendum  to  all  members  of  the  trade  and  confirmed  by  the 
Government,  should  be  binding  upon  the  whole  trade."  We 
shall  find  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  introducing  a  bill  to  this 
effect  in  1906. 

VI.  These  self-imposed  trade  regulations,  supplemented  by 
legislation,  should  assure  the  protection  of  women  and  children, 
the  limitation  of  the  working-day  "  according  to  the  conditions 
of  the  trade,"  and  the  interdiction  of  Sunday  work  in  factories 
and  workshops. 

VII.  Cooperative  societies  of  consumers  and  of  producers, 
mutual    provident    societies,    and    mutual    credit    associations 
should  be  organized  among  agricultural  workers,  farmers  and 
landowners. 

VIII.  "  This   regime  of   organized  trades   should   establish 
wages  on  a  basis  sufficient  for  the  support  of  an  average  family 
and  for  the  maintenance  of  benefit  funds  to  provide  for  the 
expenses    resulting    from    accidents,    sickness,    old    age,    etc." 
This  became  one  of  the  characteristic  contentions  of  the  Popu- 
lar Liberal  Party,  that  "  social  insurance  "  against  accidents, 
sickness,  unemployment  and  old  age  although  supervised  and 
rendered  obligatory  by  the  State,  could  best  be  organized  by  the 
trades,  without  creating  a  new  army  of  public  officials. 

IX.  International  agreements  regarding  labor  legislation  and 
the  regulation  of  banking. 

X.  Eradication  of  the  "  usurious  speculation  "  which  "  con- 
sists  in   legally   appropriating  the   products   of  -the   labor   of 
others." 

Still  more  striking  becomes  the  evidence  of  the  Association 
catholique's  influence  upon  the  Popular  Liberal  Party's  pro- 
gram, when  one  turns  to  the  program  drafted  by  the  so-called 
Union  of  Reviews  of  Christian  Social  Economy  (Reunion  des 
revues  d' economic  sociale  chretienne}  in  1898.  Formed  in 
1897,  and  including  La  Justice  sociale,  La  Sociologie  catholique, 
and  Le  XX  Siecle  as  well  as  V Association  catholique,  the  Union 
of  Reviews  was  in  reality  an  enlargement  of  the  circle  of  influ- 


254  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

ence  of  L' Association  catholique.87*  The  program  of  the  Union 
of  Reviews  was  simply  a  more  precise  elaboration  of  the  Pro- 
gram of  1895.  Dealing  first  with  the  question  of  trade  organ- 
ization, the  Union  of  Reviews  recommended : 

1.  That  all  members  of  each  trade  should  be  registered  by 
the  government,  in  the  same  way  that  the  registered  seamen 
(inscrits  maritimes)  were  already  enrolled. 

2.  That  these  registered  men  should  form,  for  each  trade,  the 
Trade  Corps  (corps  prof essionel}. 

3.  That  each  Trade  Corps  should  have  regulations  binding  on 
all  members. 

4.  That  in  each  trade,  that  is,  within  the  Trade  Corps,  trade 
unions  (syndicats)  should  be  permitted  to  develop  freely. 

5.  That  at  the  head  of  each  Trade  Corps  there  should  be  a 
Board  (Conseil},  composed  of  delegates  of  the  trade  unions, 
"  in  such  a  way  as  to  afford  equal  representation  to  the  differ- 
ent elements  of  the  trade." 

6.  That  the  Board  of  each  Trade  Corps  should  apply  general 
labor  laws  to  the  particular  trade,  and  should  formulate  the 
regulations  (coutumes*)  of  the  trade. 

7.  That  the  regulations  of  the  Boards  should  require  valida- 
tion   (homologation)   by  the  Government  and,  if  demanded, 
sanction  by  referendum  to  all  members  of  the  trade. 

8.  That  the  Boardls  should  have  certain  judicial  functions, 
and  also  authority  to  levy  assessments  or  dues. 

9.  That  the  Boards  should  "  nominate  the  representation  of 
the  trade  in  the  next  higher  degree."  876     Here  we  have  in  its 
bold  outlines  the  scheme  of  industrial  reconstruction  later  pro- 
posed by  the   Popular  Liberal   Party.     To   be  sure,   certain 
features  will  be  modified,  and  emphasis  shifted;  but  in  the 
large,  the  scheme  is  the  same. 

The  program  of  the  Union  of  Reviews  also  contained  an 
interesting  section  on  Property  and  one  on  Speculation.  As 
for  the  former,  the  Union  advocated  the  legal  protection  of 
family  property,  favoring  the  acquisition  of  inalienable  "  home- 
steads "  and  permitting  parents  to  will  the  home  to  one 
child,  excluding  the  others  from  share  or  compensation ;  also, 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  255 

corporative  property  was  to  be  recognized,  all  public,  profes- 
sional, or  charitable  associations  being  permitted  to  own  prop- 
erty, with  the  proviso  that  the  Government  should  regulate  the 
amount  and  the  use  of  the  property.  Regarding  Speculation, 
the  Union  of  Reviews  formulated  a  curious  and  interesting 
system :  all  stock-exchanges  were  to  be  controlled  by  a  "  body 
representing  all  trades,"  and  expert  delegates  of  the  trades  were 
to  assist  the  brokers ;  brokers  must  be  registered  and  must  pay 
a  special  tax ;  misrepresentation  of  stocks  should  be  penalized, 
"  bulls  "  and  "  bears  "  punished,  fictitious  operations  inter- 
dicted, and  negotiable  bonds  —  which  encourage  stock  gam- 
bling —  abolished.  In  the  long  run,  it  was  hoped,  the  recon- 
struction of  trade-organizations  and  the  revived  moral  influ- 
ences of  Christianity  would  go  to  the  heart  of  the  evil.877  In  all 
this,  the  principles  of  the  Union  of  Reviews  were  quite  as 
closely  in  accord  with  the  ideas  of  the  pioneers  of  French 
Social  Catholicism  as  they  were  prophetic  of  the  program  of 
the  Popular  Liberal  Party. 

One  other  circumstance, —  unimportant  in  itself,  perhaps,  like 
a  straw  floating  in  the  river,  but  very  significant  as  a  sign  which 
way  the  tide  is  flowing, —  may  be  noted  as  an  evidence  of  the 
decisive  influence  of  the  Social  Catholic  element  in  the  formu- 
lation of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party's  program.  When  the 
first  national  convention  of  the  party  assembled,  in  1904,  to 
work  out  a  social  program  on  the  basis  of  an  analysis  of  the 
social  committee's  replies  to  a  questionnaire,  it  was  a  Social 
Catholic  writer,  a  contributor  to  the  Association  catholique, 
who  prepared  the  report  on  the  results  of  the  questionnaire, 
and  by  his  skilful  classification  of  the  replies  from  the  com- 
mittees assisted  the  convention  to  come  to  definite  conclusions, 
embodied  in  resolutions.878 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Social  Catholic 
element  was  completely  victorious  in  forcing  the  adoption  of 
its  entire  program  upon  every  member  of  the  party.  The  party, 
in  strict  truth,  was  more  or  less  eclectic.  Its  aim  was  to  present 
a  working  program,  and  to  gain  all  possible  support  for  that 
program.  There  were  always  a  few  members  of  the  party  who 


256  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

had  small  sympathy  for  the  extreme  demands  of  the  more 
ardent  Social  Catholics,  and  who  evinced  a  marked  inclination 
to  clamber  down  off  the  social  platform  of  the  party.  The 
same  can  be  said  of  any  party  or  movement,  of  the  Socialist 
movement  as  well  as  of  the  rest.  On  the  whole,  however,  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  officially  accepted  and  faithfully  advo- 
cated—  as  its  record  in  parliament  will  testify  —  the  greater 
part  of  the  practical  program  of  the  Social  Catholic  Movement. 
A  Social  Catholic  writer,  M.  Zamanski,  in  the  Association 
catholique  (May,  1910),  even  while  expressing  some  criticism 
of  the  personnel,  hastens  to  affirm  that  the  policy  and  aims 
as  well  as  some  of  the  most  notable  leaders  of  the  party  were 
genuinely  Social  Catholic. 

"  The  name  of  M.  de  Mun,  in  whatever  place  it  may  be  found,  is  a 
banner  for  the  party  to  which  he  belongs.  In  its  official  declara- 
tions his  party  [the  Popular  Liberal  Party]  has  most  frequently 
based  its  views  upon  the  studies  pursued  in  the  School  [i.  e.,  the 
Social  Catholic  school],  its  orators,  like  M.  Lerolle  and  M.  de  Gail- 
hard-Bancel,  have  candidly  acknowledged  its  inspiration,  and  the 
names  of  several  of  its  reporters,  M.  de  Clerq,  M.  Maze-Sencier, 
will  be  found  signed  to  articles  in  the  magazine. 
"  One  might  wish  that  the  Party's  parliamentary  representation 
were  more  homogeneous  and  more  compact  in  the  social  conflict, 
especially  when  that  conflict  is  waged  about  a  Bill  where  our  prin- 
ciples are  at  stake.  Replenished  with  new  elements  which  had  been 
effectively  trained  in  the  study  of  labor  problems,  it  might  be,  in  our 
modern  debates,  the  great  social  voice  of  Christianity,  like  the 
German  Center. 

"  However,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  has  not  too  much  restricted 
its  ambitions :  the  labors  of  its  committees,  of  its  congresses,  the 
foundation  of  associations  for  social  work  and  of  social  institutions, 
the  researches,  the  opinions  of  its  Research  Committee,  at  any  rate 
prove  that  it  has  aspired  to  be  an  active  association  which  might 
translate  into  facts  the  social  doctrine  with  which  its  leaders  were 
inspired."  879 

SUMMARY  OF  THE  PARTY'S  PROGRAM  OF  SOCIAL 
RECONSTRUCTION 

A  lover  of  epigrams  might  sum  up  the  social  philosophy  of 
the  Popular  Liberal  Party  by  saying — in  terms  of  Hegelian 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  257 

logic  —  that  economic  Individualism  was  the  "thesis,"  Social- 
ism the  "  anti-thesis,"  and  the  Popular  Liberal  program  the 
"  synthesis,"  of  the  modern  doctrine  of  economic  liberty.  In- 
dividualism, said  the  Socialists,  exaggerated  individual  liberty 
to  such  an  extent  that  the  laboring  masses  fell  under  the  tyranny 
of  their  employers ;  Socialism,  said  the  Liberals,  ignored  indi- 
vidual liberty  to  such  an  extent  that  the  laboring  masses,  and 
also  the  upper  classes,  would  be  crushed  by  the  tyranny  of 
the  Socialistic  State.  True  liberty,  declared  the  Popular  Lib- 
eral Party,  could  be  assured  neither  by  individual  liberty  with- 
out social  authority,  nor  by  social  authority  without  individual 
liberty,  but  only  by  the  moderation  and  reconciliation  of  the 
two  opposite  ideals.  This  was  the  essence  of  the  social  pro- 
gram of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party :  to  safeguard  the  working- 
man  both  against  the  abuses  of  individual  liberty  and  against 
the  abuses  of  the  power  of  the  state.880 

The  characteristic  feature  —  one  might  call  it  the  corner- 
stone —  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party's  scheme  of  social  recon- 
struction was  the  reintegration  of  the  trades,  industries,  and 
professions.  Economic  individualism  had)  endeavored  to  re- 
gard each  industry  as  a  fluid  and  ephemeral  association  of  free 
economic  units  —  individuals.  Socialists  and  Syndicalists  had 
regarded  the  workingmen  and  the  employers  in  each  industry 
as  natural  enemies,  irreconcilably  separated.  But  the  Popular 
Liberty  Party  considered  each  trade  or  industry  a  natural  social 
entity,  in  which  capital  and  labor  should'  be  intimately  associ- 
ated in  the  harmony  of  common  endeavor.  The  perfectly 
organized  trade,  as  conceived  by  the  party,  would  comprise  all 
the  capitalists,  all  the  clerks,  all  the  common  laborers  in  each 
industry,  each  class  organized  in  one  or  more  trade-unions 
(syndicats),  and  all  these  classes  represented  and  united  by  a 
board  or  trade  council,  containing  an  equal  number  of  dele- 
gates from  each  class.  A  well-knit  industrial  organization  of 
this  kind  would  most  effectively  prevent  capital  from  tyranniz- 
ing over  labor,  or  vice  versa,  it  was  held',  and  at  the  same  time 
serve  as  a  bulwark  against  excessive  interference  and  unintel- 
ligent bureaucracy  on  the  part  of  the  state. 


258  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Since,  quite  obviously,  such  a  regime  of  organized  trade  corps 
could  not  spring  into  maturity  over  night,  like  a  mushroom,  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  proposed,  as  a  beginning,  first,  to  foster 
by  every  possible  expedient  the  rapid  development  and  exten- 
sion of  the  existing  trade  unions,  which  could  serve  both  to 
train  their  members  in  the  responsibilities  of  association,  and 
to  provide  the  nuclei  for  the  future  organized  trades.  The 
Liberals  became  even  more  radical  than  the  Socialists  in  de- 
manding privileges  for  the  trade  unions.  In  the  second  place, 
the  Liberals  believed  that  the  Government  should  immediately 
take  the  initiative  of  preparing  a  complete  list  of  the  persons 
engaged  in  each  industry,  declaring  that  all  persons  engaged  in 
a  given  industry  —  in  a  convenient  geographical  division  — 
should  constitute  a  "  Trade  Corps,"  and  elect  a  "Trade  Coun- 
cil," by  classes.  The  Trade  Council  should  be  recognized 
guardian  of  the  interests  of  the  Trade;  it  should  be  consulted 
on  all  labor  legislation,  authorized  to  administer  and  apply 
general  labor  laws  in  its  own  particular  trade,  and  empowered 
to  devise  regulations  for  the  Trade,  subject  to  referendum. 
The  Trade  Council,  in  other  words,  should  be  the  government 
of  the  Trade.881 

Whatever  one  may  think  of  its  practical  value,  one  cannot 
but  admire  the  intellectual  symmetry  of  the  scheme  of  social 
reconstruction  which  the  Liberals  based  upon  their  idea  of 
the  Organized  Trade.  Industrial  conciliation  and  arbitration 
would  no  longer  be  perplexing  problems,  they  would  be  normal 
functions  of  the  Trade  Councils.  In  years  past,  all  labor 
legislation  had  been  opposed  and  many  desirable  reforms  re- 
tarded or  blocked  by  the  argument  that  laws  passed  by  the 
national  legislature  were  too  rigid,  failing  to  take  into  account 
the  special  conditions  in  particular  industries ;  with  the  Trades 
organized,  not  only  would  general  laws  be  referred  to  the 
Trade  Councils  for  specialization  and  adaptation,  but  it  would 
be  very  easy  for  the  Trade  Councils  to  impose  additional  regu- 
lations, drafted  with  expert  knowledge.  Labor  legislation 
would  be  placed  on  a  scientific  basis.  Vocational  training, 
sadly  neglected  heretofore,  could  be  supervised  and  fostered 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  259 

by  the  Trades  with  real  efficiency,  contrasting  sharply  with 
the  blundering  benevolence  of  the  central  governmient.  Col- 
lective bargaining  could  be  recognized  and  legalized.  Social 
insurance  —  against  old  age,  accident,  sickness,  unemployment, 
—  could  be  developed  without  the  disagreeable  necessity  of  cre- 
ating a  host  of  unproductive  parasitic  public  officials  and  office- 
seekers.  Best  of  all,  it  was  hoped  that  the  intimate  relations 
between  capital  and  labor,  as  represented  in  the  Trade  Councils, 
would  gradually  substitute  class  cooperation  in  place  of  the 
class-struggle.  The  Revolutionary  Syndicalists  believed  that 
the  worker  must  save  himself  by  battling — rather  blindly, 
perhaps  —  for  his  mystical  faith  in  the  "  social  myth  "  of  the 
general  strike ;  the  Revolutionary  Socialists  promised  to  save 
the  workingman  by  imposing  upon  industry  a  ready-made  and 
not  very  precisely  elaborated  system  of  collective-ownership ; 
the  Popular  Liberal  Party  was  content  to  bring  employers  and 
workingmen  in  each  trade  together,  for  amicable  collaboration, 
and  then  to  wait  for  common-sense  and  fraternal  sentiments  to 
do  their  work,  spontaneously  as  far  as  possible. 

The  organization  of  industry  may  be  regarded  as  the  first 
and  most  important  chapter  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party's 
social  program.  Regarding  the  remaining  chapters  —  on  the 
regulation  of  hours  and  conditions,  on  social  insurance,  on 
wages,  only  the  briefest  suggestions  need  here  be  given.  Suf- 
fice it  to  say  that  the  party  advocated  drastic  curtailment  if 
not  the  interdiction  of  the  employment  of  women  and  children 
in  industry,  the  limitation  of  working-hours,  even  for  adult  male 
workers,  the  enforcement  of  Sunday  rest,  the  protection  of 
the  health  of  the  workers;  as  far  as  social  insurance  is  con- 
cerned, the  party  firmly  believed  obligatory  insurance  against 
old  age,  sickness,  infirmity,  unemployment,  and  accident  to  be 
most  desirable  and  urgent ;  as  for  wages  the  party  accepted  the 
principle  of  the  minimum,  wage  and  its  spokesmen  were  gen- 
erally inspired  by  the  papal  doctrine  that  every  workingman 
is  by  justice  entitled  to  a  living  wage,  sufficient  to  support  his 
family  decently,  educate  his  children  properly,  and  provide 
against  the  day  of  need.  In  all  these  matters,  the  party  desired 


260  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

the  initiative  to  be  taken  by  the  state,  the  administration  and 
application  to  be  entrusted  to  the  Trades. 

Certain  other  aspects  of  the  Party's  social  program  ought 
at  least  to  be  indicated  in  this  place,  to  show  the  scope  of  the 
plan.  Financial  speculation  and  usury  should  be  curbed. 
Stock-exchange  operations  should  be  taxed  and  regulated. 
Agricultural  cooperation  and  mutual  aid  societies  should  be 
encouraged.  And  by  various  methods  —  especially  by  favor- 
ing the  acquisition  of  small  inalienable  family  patrimonies,  and 
by  reinforcing  the  legal  authority  of  the  father  —  the  family 
should  be  strengthened  and  preserved  as  a  fundamental  insti- 
tution of  Christian  society.  In  the  Popular  Liberal  Party's 
vision  of  the  future  reconstructed  society,  the  Family  and  the 
Organized  Trade  stood  like  supporting  columns,  with  the 
Church  ensuring  the  stability  of  the  social  order,  and  at  the 
same  time  protecting  the  liberties  of  the  people  by  preventing 
the  burden  of  the  national  government  from  bearing  directly 
with  all  its  crushing  weight  upon  the  isolated  individual.882 

As  a  closing  remark  upon  this  subject,  it  may  be  added  that 
to  the  minds  of  the  Liberal  leaders  religion  must  be  the  ulti- 
mate solvent  of  social  problems.  The  problem  of  usury  and 
capitalism,  they  held,  had  developed  because  Jews  and  Prot- 
estants disregarded  the  Church's  teachings  regarding  the  sin- 
fulness  of  usury.  The  chaotic  condition  of  labor  had  resulted 
from  undue  interference  of  irreligious  monarchs  and  of  the 
anti-Christian  Revolution  with  the  old  organization  of  in- 
dustry. The  degradation  of  the  workingman  was  the  logical 
consequence  of  unmoral  economic  systems  founded  upon  false 
"  scientific  "  theories  instead  of  upon  Christian  morality.  In 
the  words  of  Jacques  Piou, 

The  social  question,  which  exists  in  fact,  whatever  Gambetta  may 
have  said  to  the  contrary,  is  above  all  a  moral  question.  The  aug- 
mentation of  wages,  easier  access  to  property,  a  better  distribution 
of  capital,  will  remain  inefficacious  palliatives  if  the  spirit  of  the 
people  fails  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  materialistic  doctrines  and  fails 
to  rediscover  its  divine  ideal.  .  .  .  The  Decalogue  and  the  Gospel 
are  the  great  factors  of  true  social  progress.  .  .  . 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  261 

A  divine  law  is  not  violated  with  impunity.  France  is  learning 
that  fact  today  by  sad  experience.  In  the  measure  that  she  breaks 
with  her  religious  traditions,  she  grows  weaker,  she  becomes  dis- 
organized, depopulated,  loses  her  rank  in  the  world  and  her  con- 
fidence in  her  own  destinies.  Foreigners  dare  to  say  that  she  is  the 
first  of  the  dying  nations.  .  .  . 

The  solution  of  the  social  problem  is  in  Christianity.  The  Social- 
ists will  never  find  anything  to  surpass  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
or  to  replace  it.883 

CONSTITUTIONAL  REFORMS  AND  POLITICAL  THEORIES 

With  its  ambitious  program  of  social  reconstruction,  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  combined  a  scheme  of  political  or  con- 
stitutional reforms  hardly  less  remarkable  in  their  combina- 
tion of  radicalism  and  conservatism.  At  the  outset,  as  the 
reader  will  recall,  the  Liberal  Group,  growing  into  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party,  could  hardly  agree  upon  any  clear  or  compre- 
hensive theory  of  government,  for  the  group  was  constituted 
by  the  combination  of  the  most  diverse  elements, —  conserva- 
tive nationalists  sighing  for  a  return  to  monarchy,  reluctant 
rallies,  sincerely  endeavoring  to  swallow  the  bitter  medicine  of 
republicanism  without  making  too  wry  a  face,  and  convinced 
Republican  Progressists.  Their  only  common  ground  was 
defense  of  the  Church  and  of  the  social  order  against  anti- 
clericalism  and  Socialism.  Their  leader,  however,  though  he 
might  be  linked  to  monarchism  by  his  friendships,  and  by  the 
necessity  of  political  alliances,  cherished  at  heart  the  convic- 
tion that  since  the  mass  of  the  nation  seemed  determined  to 
maintain  the  Republic,  it  was  the  duty  of  conservatives  to  join 
together  in  a  great  "  Tory  party,"  a  party  of  conservative 
progress,  with  a  program  of  reconstruction  to  preserve  and 
ameliorate  existing  institutions,  as  an  alternative  to  the  pro- 
gram of  the  parties  of  the  Left,  which,  to  his  way  of  thinking, 
was  essentially  a  program  of  negations,  destructive  rather  than 
constructive  in  aim. 

This  conviction,  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  keynote  of 
his  party's  political  philosophy,  Jacques  Piou  very  clearly  ex- 
plained two  years  before  the  formation  of  the  Liberal  Group 


262  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

in  an  article  in  the  Revue  des  deux  mondes  (June  15,  1897), 
entitled  "  The  Conservatives  and  Democracy." 

The  institutions  of  France  do  not  depend  any  longer  upon  a  con- 
stitutional formula.  The  crisis  through  which  France  is  passing  is 
not  of  such  recent  origin,  nor  are  its  causes  so  trivial.  Since  1789 
she  has  been  pursuing  a  task  without  precedent  in  history. 

From  the  aristocracy  which  she  was,  she  wishes  to  transform 
herself  into  a  democracy.  No  nation,  before  her,  has  ever  realized 
or  even  conceived  a  like  enterprise.  So  prodigious  a  transformation 
appears  as  the  most  extraordinary  ambition,  or  rather  the  most 
foolhardy.  In  order  to  realize  it,  France  has  hazarded  her  destinies 
in  revolutions  on  five  or  six  occasions ;  and,  behold,  after  a  century 
of  pains  and  of  conflicts,  she  seems  to  have  victory  in  her  grasp. 
This  victory  is  not  complete,  but  it  is  sufficient  to  render  any  retreat 
impossible.  The  old  organism  having  been  destroyed,  we  must  com- 
plete the  new,  whatever  the  price,  or  perish.  .  .  . 

*        *        * 

The  hour  has  come,  even  for  the  most  obstinate  "  to  pardon  the 
inevitable  "  and  to  think  of  their  children  more  than  of  their  an- 
cestors. So  let  the  conservatives  overcome  their  diffidence,  let  them 
forget  the  affronts  received,  the  injustices  suffered,  the  calumnies, 
all  these  detestable  legacies  of  a  century  of  revolutions :  one  does 
not  revenge  oneself  on  his  country.  It  depends  upon  them  whether 
democracy  shall  be  the  most  beneficent  or  the  most  perverse  of 
powers.  In  the  midst  of  many  sorrows,  a  few  happy  omens  seem 
to  presage  better  days.  .  .  . 

Shall  we  be  present  to  witness  the  first  gleams  of  a  new  aurora? 
Are  the  Conservatives  going  to  decide,  at  last,  to  follow  the  nation 
in  its  evolution  and  to  second  it  in  its  efforts?884 

Though  the  details  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party's  program 
were  worked  out  piecemeal,  according  as  public  interest  veered 
from  one  quarter  to  another,  there  runs  through  the  whole 
program  and  history  of  the  party,  with  a  logical  consistency 
rather  unusual  in  politics,  this  basic  idea  enunciated  by  Piou, 
to  enlist  the  naturally  conservative  elements  of  the  nation  in  the 
patriotic  endeavor  to  make  democracy  in  France  a  truly  benefi- 
cent agency,  tolerant  of  popular  liberties,  genuinely  repre- 
sentative, sanely  constructive  in  social  questions,  strong  and 
stable  enough  to  command  respect  at  home  and  abroad.  In 
particular,  the  constitutional  reforms  advocated  to  this  end  are 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  263 

interesting  in  their  combination,  if  not  altogether  original  in 
their  conception. 

A.  Parliamentary  Reform 

In  the  program  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  we  find  a 
broad  conception  of  parliamentary  reform.  The  Chamber 
of  Deputies  and  the  Senate,  said  the  Liberals,  did  not  truly 
represent  the  desires  and  interests  of  the  people.  In  four  re- 
spects the  existing  system  of  representative  government  was 
really  misrepresentative,  viz.,  (i)  a  large  number  of  voters 
never  participated  in  elections,  (2)  the  elections  were  not 
fairly  conducted,  (3)  the  parliamentary  strength  of  the  parties 
was  not  proportional  to  their  voting  strength,  and  (4)  repre- 
sentation was  based  entirely  on  geographical  divisions,  rather 
than  on  economic  interests.  How  were  these  defects  to  be 
corrected  ? 

I.  To  begin  with,  the  party  from  its  very  first  national  con- 
vention demanded  that  voting  be  made  obligatory,  as  in  Bel- 
gium (and  subsequently  Spain).     The  justification  for  this  de- 
mand was  "  that  there  is  no  right  without  a  duty  " ;  moreover, 
"  under  a  regime  of  universal  suffrage  the  national  will   is 
effective  only  if  it  is  exercised  by  the  totality  of  the  citizens." 
As  a  practical  reason  for  the  measure,  the  party  pointed  to 
statistics  showing  that  in  the  national  elections  of    1902  no 
fewer  than  2,284,027  electors,  or  almost  21%  of  the  total  num- 
ber of  those  qualified  to  exercise  the  franchise,  abstained  from 
voting.     As  a  large  proportion  of  these  abstainers  might  safely 
be  counted  as  conservatives,  compulsory  voting  would  probably 
be  as  advantageous  to  the  party  as  to  the  nation.885 

II.  At  the  same  party  convention  of  1904  was  proclaimed  a 
second  demand  or  group  of  demands,  for  the  protection  of 
"  the  sincerity  and  security  of  the  vote."     Under  the  existing 
system,  the  secrecy  of  the  ballot  was  notoriously  violated,  and 
electoral  frauds  were  all  too  frequent.886     The  safeguards  pro- 
posed by  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  were:     (i)   codification 
of  the  election  laws;  (2)  the  use  of  the  same  kind  of  paper 
for  the  ballots  of  all  parties,  and  the  enclosure  of  ballots  in 


264  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

envelopes  (under  the  existing  regime,  the  Government  supplied 
the  voter  with  an  official  ballot,  which  he  might  cast  for  the 
Ministerial  candidate,  while  the  Opposition  candidates  fur- 
nished their  own  distinctive  ballot-papers,  and  as  the  ballots 
were  not  enclosed  in  envelopes  there  was  practically  little 
secrecy  about  them)  ;  (3)  the  restriction  of  campaign-posters 
to  spaces  equal  for  all  parties;  (4)  substitution  of  a  civic 
pass-book  (livret  civique)  in  place  of  the  voter's  identification 
card,  as  a  more  certain  means  of  identifying  voters;  (5)  the 
registration  of  each  elector  solely  in  the  district  where  he  had 
resided  for  six  months;  (6)  recognition  of  the  right  to  contest 
registrations ;  (7)  the  right  of  any  voter  or  candidate  to 
prosecute  any  elector  or  official  for  failing  to  execute  the  law ; 
(8)  appointment  of  official  tellers  and  watchers,  an  equal 
number  for  each  party.  The  mere  enumeration  of  these  de- 
mands is  an  illuminating  commentary  on  the  susceptibility  of 
the  French  electoral  laws  to  fraud  and  injustice.887  In  its 
convention  of  1906,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  again  consider- 
ing the  question  of  electoral  frauds,  made  several  interesting 
additions  to  its  program:  that  in  large  districts,  the  list  of 
voters  should  be  printed  and  distributed ;  that  a  private  booth 
should  be  provided  for  marking  the  ballot ;  that  severe  penalties 
should  be  laid  on  the  exercise  of  undue  partisan  pressure  by 
government  officials ;  and  that  the  verification  of  elections 
should  be  entrusted  to  a  Supreme  Court.888  The  last-men- 
tioned point  was  important,  since  the  number  of  Opposition 
deputies  whose  election  was  invalidated  by  the  decision  of  the 
parliamentary  majority  was  ordinarily  considerable.  In  1906, 
for  example,  twelve  seats  were  "  taken "  from  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  if  we  may  believe  the  Bulletin  of  the  party. 

III.  Not  content  with  demanding  an  honest  vote  and  an 
obligatory  vote,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  advocated  with 
great  earnestness  the  restoration  of  the  large  constituency 
(scrutin  de  liste)  system  with  proportional  representation.889 
The  Liberals  were  among  the  first  and  remained  among  the 
most  ardent  champions  of  this  great  democratic  reform.  One 
of  the  earliest  proportional  representation  bills  on  record 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  265 

was  that  drafted  by  Jules  Dansette,  a  leading  Liberal,  in 
IQOO.890  Despite  rebuffs,  Dansette  and  other  Liberals  per- 
sisted in  bringing  in  proportional  representation  bills,  in  legis- 
lature after  legislature,891  until  in  time,  as  other  parties  swung 
into  line  and  even  assumed  the  leadership  of  the  campaign, 
proportional  representation  became  one  of  the  leading  issues 
of  the  day. 

There  seems  to  be  little  question  that  the  existing  system  of 
voting  with  the  scrutin  d'arrondissement  resulted  in  the  election 
of  grossly  misrepresentative  parliaments.  According  to  one 
calculation,892  the  elections  of  1906,  had  they  been  conducted 
under  the  system  of  proportional  representation,  would  have 
given  the  right  wing  of  the  Chamber  (including  Conservatives, 
Nationalists,  Liberals,  and  Progressists)  248  seats  in  place  of 
the  185  actually  obtained,  and  the  "  Republicans,"  Radicals, 
and  Socialists  would  have  suffered  a  corresponding  loss.  In- 
deed, more  than  one  of  the  orators  who  denounced  propor- 
tional representation  was  candid  enough  to  confess  that  this 
fact  lay  at  the  root  of  the  opposition  to  electoral  reform.  To 
cite  one  instance,  the  Radical-Socialist  Rene  Renoult,  speaking 
in  the  name  of  "  a  large  number  of  my  Radical-Socialist 
friends,"  declared, 

We  only  know  that  it  appears  from  minute  and  conclusive  calcula- 
tions, computed  on  the  basis  of  the  elections  of  1906  and  of  1910, 
that  more  than  100  seats  would  pass  from  the  Left  to  the  Right 
[if  proportional  representation  were  adopted]. 

M.  Joseph  Denis  interjected  the  remark,  "  In  that  case,  you 
occupy  them  without  right."  But  Renoult  continued,  in  an 
alarmist  tone,  "  and  no  one  can  give  us  assurance  that  if  this 
should  happen  the  Republican  party  and  even  the  constitution 
itself  would  not  be  exposed  to  a  grave  crisis."  893 

The  leading  advocates  of  proportional  representation, — 
Liberals,  Progressists,  and  Conservatives, —  naturally  felt  no 
aversion  to  the  transfer  of  a  hundred  seats  from  Left  to  Right. 
Nor  were  they  ready  to  believe  that  the  safety  of  the  Re- 
public depended  upon  the  size  of  the  Radical  party.  Jacques 


266  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Piou  believed  that  proportional  representation  would  make 
the  Republic  more  stable  than  ever,  by  reconciling  opposing 
elements.  "  Proportional  Representation,"  he  said,  "  would  be 
the  Edict  of  Nantes  of  modern  times,  the  great  pacifying 
measure  which  by  tolerance  and  justice  will  prepare  the  way 
for  the  necessary  reconciliations."  894  If  the  Republican  regime 
was  in  danger,  it  was  only  because  some  "  Republicans  "  had 
preferred  party  advantage  to  justice.  To  show  how  strongly 
the  Liberals  were  supported  in  this  view  by  the  Progressist 
Republicans,  we  quote  the  following  paragraph  from  a  speech 
of  Joseph  Reinach, — 

If  the  parliamentary  regime  is  perhaps  on  the  eve  of  entering  into 
a  crisis  more  serious  than  all  those  which  it  has  passed  through, 
it  is  because  the  Chambers  no  longer  appear  to  be  dominated  by 
solicitude  for  public  interests.  And  if  the  solicitude  for  public 
interests  has  wavered  in  the  Chambers,  it  is  because  the  latter  have 
been  chosen  by  majority  vote,  by  the  scrutin  d'arrondissement 
which  cannot  be  anything  but  a  majority  vote,  and  because  the 
scrutin  d'arrondissement  is  the  most  absurd  of  majority  systems 
by  reason  of  the  inequality  of  the  constituencies,  since  in  the  same 
department,  in  the  same  city,  4000  votes  are  sufficient  to  elect  a 
deputy  in  one  constituency  while  just  across  the  river,  or  across  the 
street,  15,000  or  20,000  votes  are  required ;  at  the  same  time  the 
scrutin  d'arrondissement  is  the  most  pernicious  of  majority  systems 
for  all  those  other  reasons,  political,  administrative,  moral,  which 
you  will  excuse  me  from  repeating,  since  they  have  been  presented 
twenty  times  in  this  tribune.895 

When  after  many  a  heated  debate,  a  scheme  of  departmental 
scrutin  de  liste  with  a  modified  form  of  proportional  repre- 
sentation came  to  a  final  vote  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
July  n,  1912,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  unanimously  voted 
in  the  affirmative  and  had  the  lively  satisfaction  of  seeing  the 
great  reform  of  which  they  had  been  the  first  champions  ap- 
proved by  a  handsome  majority  (339  to  217).  It  is  interest- 
ing to  note  that  the  most  solid  support  for  the  bill  came  from 
the  Liberals  and  the  Progressists ;  the  Unified  Socialists  gave 
rather  weaker  assistance;  but  the  groups  in  between  the  two 
wings  were  for  the  most  part  opposed.  Thomson  (Democratic 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  267 

Left),  elemental  (Radical  Left),  Caillaux  (Unified  Radicals), 
Augagneur  (Republican-Socialist), —  such  are  the  names  one 
finds  in  the  column  of  those  who  voted  "  Contre"  896 

Immediately,  Combes  and  Clemenceau  and  other  eminent 
anticlerical  Republicans  formed  a  committee  to  make  a  last 
stand,  in  the  Senate,  in  defense  of  the  majority  system  and 
the  Radical  party.  And  so  indomitable  was  that  last  stand, 
that,  what  with  amendments  and  endless  debates,  the  Electoral 
Reform  Bill  was  first  mutilated,  then  stifled. 

A  last  desperate  expedient  to  overcome  the  senatorial  op- 
position was  suggested  by  Paul  Pugliesi-Conti  (who  had  been 
affiliated  with  the  Liberal  Party  in  the  previous  legislature) 
on  January  30,  1914.  He  proposed  a  sort  of  referendum,  an 
"  enquete"  Each  voter  should  be  asked : 

"  (i)  Are  you  in  favor  of  maintaining  the  majority  sys- 
tem?" 

"  (2)  Are  you  in  favor  of  establishing  the  representation  of 
minorities  by  the  system  of  proportional  repre- 
sentation with  the  quotient  ?  " 

The  Radicals  and  Radical-Socialists  condemned  this  proposal 
out  of  hand  as  a  disguised  plebiscite,  smacking  of  "  boulan- 
gismc,"  and  a  majority  of  the  Chamber  helped  to  defeat  it; 
but  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  some  other  members  of  the 
Right,  and  some  Socialists  supported  it.897  Not  many  months 
afterwards,  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  War  caused  propor- 
tional representation  to  be  laid  on  the  shelf,  with  other  domestic 
problems,  until  the  return  of  peace. 

In  July,  1919,  an  Electoral  Reform  Bill  establishing  propor- 
tional representation  was  finally  carried  through  and  placed 
upon  the  statute-books.  The  reform  was  not  complete,  since 
in  the  new  law  there  was  a  provision  that  every  candidate  re- 
ceiving an  absolute  majority  of  the  votes  cast  in  his  district 
should  be  elected;  but  proportional  representation  was  to  be 
applied  in  all  other  cases.  The  law  of  1919,  therefore,  may 
be  regarded  as  a  partial  fulfilment  of  the  demand  which  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  had  inscribed  in  its  program.898 

IV.  The  most  interesting  of  the  four  reforms  advocated  by 


268  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

the  Popular  Liberal  Party  to  improve  the  representative  system 
remains  to  be  mentioned.  Philosophically,  it  rests  upon  the 
same  fundamental  principle  as  proportional  representation,  to 
wit,  that  the  members  of  the  national  legislature  should  in 
justice  and  reason  represent  the  convictions  and  interests  of 
the  different  elements  of  the  nation,  rather  than  the  arbitrary 
geographical  divisions  called  arrondissements.  Proportional 
representation  would  make  the  Chamber  a  more  faithful  por- 
trait of  the  state  of  the  parties  in  the  country  at  large.  But 
to  afford  a  true  index  of  the  vital  economic  interests  of  the 
nation,  something  more  was  needed,  "  Professional  Repre- 
sentation "  or  "  Functional  Representation  "  as  it  is  sometimes 
called.  The  Popular  Liberal  Party  committed  itself  very 
definitely  to  this  idea.  At  the  party  convention  of  1909,  this 
resolution  was  passed : 

The  convention  resolves  that  pending  the  time  when  representation 
of  professions  can  be  established  in  the  great  assemblies  of  the 
country, —  and  the  convention  favors  such  representation  in  prin- 
ciple,—  there  should  be  constituted  a  general  representation  of  the 
professions,  emanating  from  a  scheme  of  trade  organization  analo- 
gous to  that  proposed  by  a  group  of  Deputies  of  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party  in  July,  1906;  and  that,  henceforth,  the  existing  professional 
organizations  should  be  obligatorily  consulted  on  all  laws  concern- 
ing the  professions.899 

The  scheme  of  trade  organization  referred  to  was  outlined  in 
a  bill,  of  which  the  provisions  will  be  discussed  in  a  later 
chapter;  in  this  connection  it  may  be  explained,  however, 
that  the  bill  contemplated  the  establishment  of  "  corps "  in 
each  trade  or  profession.  All  lawyers  would  be  enrolled  in 
the  law  corps,  physicians  in  the  medical  corps,  ironworkers 
(including  capitalists,  managers,  clerks,  and  workingmen)  in 
the  iron-industry  corps,  and  so  on.  Given  this  groundwork 
of  industrial  organization,  it  would  be  a  simple  matter  to 
rear  from  it  a  form  of  political  representation,  say  in  a  "  Senat 
professionel,"  each  trade  corps  being  assigned  a  number  of 
senators  proportionate  to  its  membership.  But  until  the 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  269 

foundation  had  been  laid,  and  all  men  enrolled  in  their  proper 
trade  corps,  it  would  be  idle  to  dream  of  establishing  a  Pro- 
fessional Senate.  For  this  reason  the  Liberals  thought  it 
unnecessary  to  bring  in  a  bill  delineating  the  scheme.  They 
contented  themselves,  in  the  Organization  of  Labor  Bill  of 
1906,  with  the  hope  that  France  might  achieve  "  some  day,  the 
reality  and  the  plenitude  of  national  representation  by  the 
representation  of  interests  in  an  upper  chamber."  90° 


B.  Safeguards  against  Parliamentary  Despotism 

The  four  reforms  just  enumerated,  namely,  obligatory  vot- 
ing, precautions  against  election  frauds,  proportional  repre- 
sentation, and  professional  representation,  had  as  their  general 
object  the  better  representation  of  the  people  in  the  parliament. 
A  second  group  of  political  reforms  was  advocated  by  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  with  the  aim  of  safeguarding  the 
country  against  the  dangers  of  a  centralized  and  despotic 
parliamentary  government.  Under  the  French  governmental 
system,  as  it  existed,  the  entire  power  of  government  was 
focussed  in  a  council  of  ministers  nominally  appointed  by  the 
president  of  the  republic  but  really  depending  upon  parliament, 
and  chiefly  upon  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  The  hierarchy 
of  prefects,  sub-prefects,  miscellaneous  government  officials 
and  government  employees  constituted  a  vast  bureaucracy  un- 
der the  control  of  the  national  ministry.  Local  autonomy  was 
reduced  to  the  vanishing  point.  The  entire  political  life  of 
the  nation  was  in  the  grip  of  whatever  group  of  parliamentary 
leaders  happened  to  be  in  power.  Incessant  cabinet  changes, 
due  to  shifting  combinations  of  parliamentary  groups,  rendered 
the  system  as  unstable  as  it  was  despotic.902 

The  introduction  of  proportional  representation  for  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  the  creation  of  a  Senate  represent- 
ing organized  economic  or  professional  interests  would  go  far, 
it  was  hoped,  to  make  parliament  both  more  representative 
in  membership  and  more  stable  in  its  policies.  But,  as  addi- 


270  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

tional  safeguards  of  liberty,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  pro- 
posed the  following  measures:  (a)  inscription  of  a  declaration 
of  rights  and  liberties  in  the  constitution;  (b)  creation  of  a 
supreme  court  as  guardian  of  the  constitution;  (c)  strengthen- 
ing of  the  position  of  the  president  of  the  republic,  (d)  civil 
service  reform,  (e)  decentralization,  (f)  the  referendum.  A 
word  about  each  is  necessary. 

(a)  The  constitutional  laws  under  wfhich  the  Third  French 
Republic  is  governed  are  almost  unique  among  modern  con- 
stitutions in  that  they  contain  no  declaration  of  the  inviolable 
rights  of  citizens  and  impose  no  effective  restriction  upon  the 
powers   of    parliament.     The   French   constitutions    of    1791, 
1793,  and  1795,  the  Charter  of  1814,  the  constitution  of  1830, 
the  constitution  of  1848,  even  the  constitution  of   1852, —  all 
had  contained  declarations  of  rights  and  liberties.     But  the 
constitution-framers  of   1875,  disregarding  the  historical  tra- 
dition,  omitted   any   such   declaration.903     Since  then,   in   the 
view  of  a  prominent  member  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party, 
"  the  citizens   have   been   delivered  over   to   the   caprices   of 
parliament,  as  the  citizens  of  the  ancient  pagan  state  were 
subjected  to  the  caprice  of  Caesar."  90* 

The  Popular  Liberal  Party  therefore  proposed  that  a  series 
of  declarations,  based  on  the  historic  Declaration  of  the  Rights 
of  Man,  but  amended  and  rectified,  should  be  inserted  in  the 
constitutional  laws.  The  declarations  should  safeguard:  the 
liberty  of  the  individual  within  the  law;  inviolability  of  the 
private  domicile  except  in  cases  of  crimes  and  misdemeanors 
specified  in  the  penal  laws ;  liberty  of  conscience ;  and  freedom 
for  the  various  religious  confessions  to  follow  their  own  rules 
of  organization ;  liberty  of  education,  and  freedom  for  the 
parent  to  choose  between  public  and  private  schools  for  his 
children ;  liberty  of  association  and  of  assembly ;  freedom  of 
the  press ;  freedom  of  work ;  "  and  all  other  liberties  the  en- 
joyment of  which  is  compatible  with  public  morality  and  the 
respect  of  the  equal  rights  of  others."  905 

(b)  To  secure  observance  of  these  constitutional  prescrip- 
tions, some  body  independent  of  the  legislative  and  executive 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  271 

powers  was  considered  necessary.  In  other  words,  a  Supreme 
Court  must  be  created  and  invested  with  authority  to  pass  on 
the  constitutionality  of  administrative  decrees  and  legislative 
acts.  This  idea  was  quite  frankly  borrowed  from  the  con- 
stitution of  the  United  States.  M.  Souriac,  whose  very  in- 
teresting report  on  constitutional  reforms  provided  the  basis 
for  the  party  convention's  resolutions,  made  the  following 
statement : 

.  .  .  We  believe  that  a  new  organ  is  needed,  and  we  believe  that 
we  may  find  in  the  celebrated  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
a  model  which  may  be  adapted  to  our  country,  to  our  needs. 
Almost  a  hundred  and  twenty  years  the  constitution  of  the  great 
American  republic  has  been  in  existence,  and  during  this  time  pro- 
found changes  have  occurred  in  society,  in  political  customs,  in 
conditions  of  life,  with  the  dizzy  rapidity  which  accelerates  all  events 
in  that  country.  The  Supreme  Court,  immutable  in  its  organic 
structure,  impassive  in  the  midst  of  social  upheavals,  inaccessible 
to  fear  as  to  money  .  .  .  has  remained  what  the  authors  of  the  act 
of  1787  made  it,  like  a  central  point  about  which  everything  gravi- 
tates, moves  and  changes,  without  ever  affecting  it. 

Such  an  example,  coming  from  a  nation  which  has  found  much 
strength  and  prosperity  under  a  republican  form  of  government,  is 
well  calculated  to  attract  us.  .  .  .B0e 

But  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  did  not  propose  an  exact  dupli- 
cation of  the  American  model.  The  method  of  appointing  the 
Supreme  Court  in  the  United  States  was  held  to  be  "  not  ab- 
solutely perfect,"  since  the  president's  choice  of  members  must 
be  submitted  to  the  Senate,  "  which  is  sometimes  very  much 
influenced  by  political  [partisan]  considerations."  Moreover, 
the  Supreme  Court,  instead  of  reviewing  all  legislation  and 
definitely  annulling  unconstitutional  acts,  waited  until  some 
citizen  made  complaint  about  a  given  law,  and  then  did  not 
annul,  but  merely  refused  to  apply  it. 

In  designing  a  tribunal  for  France,  the  Liberals  hoped  to 
correct  these  defects.  The  Supreme  Court  would  have  the 
right  to  annul  unconstitutional  laws,  and  would  review  the 
acts  and  ordinances  of  the  executive  power  and  of  admin- 
istrative officials.  With  so  large  a  function,  the  court  would 


272  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

necessarily  be  larger  than  the  American  Supreme  Court.  It 
was  suggested  that  there  should  be  125  judges,  of  whom  25 
should  be  appointed  by  the  president  of  the  republic,  25  by  the 
Senate,  25  by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  25  by  regional  as- 
semblies, 25  chosen  by  trade  organizations  and  from  the 
"  batonniers  de  I'ordre  des  avocats  prds  des  Cours  d'Appel." 
Once  constituted,  the  Court  would  fill  any  vacancy  in  its  mem- 
bership by  choosing  from  a  list  of  candidates  proposed  by  the 
same  authorities  that  selected  the  original  incumbent  of  the 
vacant  post.  Furthermore,  the  Supreme  Court  would  main- 
tain a  representative  in  each  region  of  France  to  bring  to  the 
attention  of  the  court  all  cases  subject  to  its  jurisdiction.907 
Futhermore,  the  Supreme  Court  would  be  intrusted  with  the 
duty  of  verifying  the  powers  of  members  elected  to  the  two 
chambers  of  parliament.908 

(c)  Another  constitutional  reform  obviously  inspired  by  ad- 
miration of  the  United  States  concerned  the  election  and  the 
powers  of  the  president  of  the  republic.  Under  the  existing 
constitutional  laws  of  1875  the  president  was  nominally  in- 
vested with  very  considerable  powers ;  he  could  dissolve  parlia- 
ment, demand  reconsideration  of  laws,  propose  legislation,  ap- 
point ministers  of  state  and  civil  and  military  officers,  nego- 
tiate treaties,  and  issue  administrative  decrees.909  But  in 
practice,  the  president  was  a  dignified  figurehead,  the  chief 
ceremonial  officer  rather  than  the  chief  magistrate  of  France, 
and  his  important  political  functions  were  exercised  by  the 
council  of  ministers  responsible  to  parliament.910  This  state 
of  affairs  was  most  distasteful  alike  to  the  more  patriotic  poli- 
ticians, who  considered  a  strong  and  stable  executive  essential 
to  the  maintenance  of  the  country's  international  prestige,  and 
to  authorities  on  constitutional  law,  who  deplored  the  concen- 
tration of  all  authority  in  the  hands  of  a  fluctuating  parlia- 
mentary majority.911 

The  Popular  Liberal  Party  ascribed  the  weakness  of  the 
president  to  the  fact  that  he  was  elected  by  the  legislative 
chambers,  rather  than  to  any  inadequacy  of  constitutional 
powers.  Therefore  it  was  proposed  that  the  president  should 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  273 

be  chosen  by  "  a  great  body  of  independent  electors,  truly  rep- 
resentative of  the  nation,"  i.  e.,  by  an  electoral  college  based  on 
universal  suffrage.  His  term  of  office  should  be  four  instead 
of  seven  years,  so  that  he  would  not  lose  contact  with  the  peo- 
ple, but  he  might  be  reflected  after  an  interval  of  four  years. 
Moreover,  he  should  have  the  right  to  submit  to  the  Supreme 
Court  any  laws  which  appeared  to  -him  to  be  unconstitu- 
tional.912 

(d)  Among  the  measures  designed  to  curb  the  power  ex- 
ercised by  the  parliamentary  majority  through  the  cabinet,  not 
the  least  important  was  civil  service  reform.  Government 
officials  and  employees,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party,  were  not  adequately  protected  against  the  arbitrary  au- 
thority of  the  ministry.  This  was  all  the  more  serious  because 
government  employees  were  so  numerous.  France,  said  the 
general  secretary  of  the  party,  "  is  certainly  one  of  the  coun- 
tries that  has  the  most  government  employees,  every  year  their 
number  increases,  in  such  proportion  that  there  are  at  the 
present  time  .  .  .  more  than  a  million,  that  is,  one  government 
employee  to  every  forty  inhabitants." 913  In  the  words  of 
Jacques  Piou,  the  president  of  the  party, 

these  government  employees  who  have  no  protection  are,  like  us, 
without  a  constitution.  .  .  .  Their  advancement,  their  rights  as 
heads  of  families,  their  liberty  of  conscience,  all  are  subject  to  the 
discretion  of  petty  tyrants  who  reign  like  lords  and  masters  in 
their  districts,  and  of  petty  Caesars  who  populate  the  benches  of 
the  Chamber  of  Deputies  and  Senate.  The  government  employees 
must  have  not  only  these  rights  secured  to  them, —  and  that  will  be 
a  great  novelty  in  this  country, —  but  also  the  right  to  vote  freely, 
because  they  are  citizens  on  the  same  footing  as  the  others.  To 
refuse  this,  is  to  say  that  universal  suffrage  is  a  universal  lie. 

Piou  went  on  to  explain  that  the  government  employees  at 
present  could  not  vote  freely.  "  What  sort  of  political  liberty 
is  it,  when  they  receive  their  ballot-papers  from  the  hands  of 
the  prefect  or  of  the  minister?"914 

Favoritism  and  discrimination  in  the  appointment  and  pro- 
motion of  government  employees  were  perhaps  the  most  fla- 


274  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

grant  evils.  By  way  of  remedy,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  pro- 
posed that  appointments  should  be  based  on  the  results  of 
competitive  examinations,  and  that  candidates  fulfilling  the  re- 
quirements could  not  be  rejected  by  the  arbitrary  will  of  a 
minister.  The  reason  for  rejection  must  be  stated,  and  appeal 
might  be  carried  to  the  council  of  state.  Promotion,  likewise, 
was  to  be  safeguarded  against  personal  favoritism  and  partisan 
or  religious  discrimination ;  the  minister,  in  making  promotions, 
must  follow  the  recommendation  of  a  commission  elected  by 
the  employees.  Furthermore,  government  employees  should 
have  the  right  to  form  unions  for  the  defense  of  their  profes- 
sional interests ;  the  right  to  strike,  however,  should  not  be 
granted  to  the  personnel  of  public  utilities  vital  to  national  de- 
fense, i.  e.,  government  railways,  posts,  telegraphs,  and  tele- 
phones. Finally,  no  government  employee  should  be  subject 
to  disciplinary  punishment  for  having  manifested,  outside  of  his 
official  office  or  his  government  work,  political  or  religious 
opinions  at  variance  with  those  of  the  government.915 

Such  a  charter  of  civil  service  reform  would  not  only  pro- 
tect the  rights  of  the  government  employees  as  individuals ; 
it  would  also  have  an  appreciable  effect  upon  the  general  polit- 
ical situation.  The  army  of  government  employees  would  no 
longer  be  an  effective  instrument  of  party  control,  for  patron- 
age and  discrimination  would  have  been  reduced  to  a  minimium. 
Thanks  to  this  reform,  in  conjunction  with  the  electoral  reforms 
already  mentioned,  the  government  employees  would  become 
free  voters;  their  emancipation  might  even  affect  the  political 
balance  of  power,  for,  as  M.  Piou  pointed  out  in  1909,  it  was 
a  long  time  since  the  opposition  had  been  defeated  by  a  majority 
as  large  as  the  number  of  government  employees.916 

(e)  Another  measure  aimed  against  bureaucratic  centraliza- 
tion was  the  restoration  of  local  autonomy  and  "  regionalism." 
The  idea  was  by  no  means  novel ;  as  M.  Piou  said  at  the  Con- 
vention of  1907,  it  was  a  question  about  which  Frenchmen  talked 
constantly  but  never  thought, — the  exact  inverse  of  their  at- 
titude regarding  Alsace-Lorraine.917 

The  faults  of  the  existing,  centralized  system  of  government 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  275 

were  many  and  grave, — "  expensive  and  inconvenient  adminis- 
tration, indifference  to  public  affairs,  regression  of  private  ini- 
tiative and  progress  of  bureaucracy,  extinction  of  local  in- 
dustries, sickly  and  factitious  art  and  literature,  stupidly  uni- 
form education,  ignorance  of  economic  interests,  destruction 
of  everything  that  is  picturesque  and  of  all  differentia- 
tion. .  .  ,"918 

Under  the  existing  regime,  France  was  divided  into  86  ad- 
ministrative districts,  the  departements,  on  lines  laid  down  more 
or  less  arbitrarily  by  the  National  Constituent  Assembly  in 
1790,  regardless  of  historic  traditions,  and  of  local  sentiments 
and  interests  alike.  Local  self-government  had  almost  disap- 
peared, partly  because  the  departement  rarely  corresponded  to 
any  lively  local  sentim(ent  or  regional  interest,  partly  because 
the  departmental  assemblies  (conseils  generaux}  had  very  re- 
stricted powers,  their  decisions  being  subject  to  veto  by  the 
central  government.  The  real  power  in  the  departement  was 
the  prefect,  appointed  by  the  minister  of  the  interior. 

As  opposed  to  this  system,  there  has  grown  up  recently  in 
France  a  strong  "  regionalist "  movement,  which  aims  at  the 
creation  or  restoration  of  larger  administrative  units  cor- 
responding to  the  thirty-odd  "  provinces  "  of  the  old  regime, 
and  the  grant  of  considerable  powers  of  local  self-government 
to  such  regions  or  provinces.  Much  is  said  in  defense  of  their 
plan  by  the  advocates  of  regionalism.  It  would  simplify  ad- 
ministration;  it  would  reduce  the  number  of  local-government 
centers  from  86  to  about  30,  it  would  therefore  cut  down  ad- 
ministrative expenses  and  diminish  the  army  of  bureaucrats. 
Moreover,  if  the  boundaries  of  the  new  provinces  were  drawn 
with  due  regard  to  geographical  unity,  economic  coherence,  and 
historic  tradition,  local  government  would  become  a  genuine 
expression  of  local  interest,  rather  than  a  lifeless  bit  of  polit- 
ical mechanism.  Most  of  all,  the  provincial  assemblies  would 
be  able  to  resist  what  many  regarded  as  the  despotic  sectarian 
tendencies  of  the  central  government. 

Such  were  the  arguments  put  forward  in  the  conventions  of 
the  Popular  Liberal  Party.  The  question  of  decentralization 


276  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

came  up,  rather  unexpectedly  at  the  convention  of  1906,  when 
the  draft  of  a  "  liberal  "  constitution  was  under  discussion,  and 
the  following  clause  was  added  to  the  draft,  by  a  unanimous 
vote: 

8.  That  the  provincial  and  municipal  regimes  should  be  established 
on  the  basis  of  a  large  measure  of  decentralization:  (i)  safe- 
guarding local  liberties  and  franchises ;  (2)  constituting  genuinely 
autonomous  regions,  held  together  by  the  bonds  of  an  irreducible 
national  unity  and  solidarity,  but  working  for  the  interests  of  the 
nation  by  means  of  the  free,  competent,  and  harmonious  adminis- 
tration of  local  interests ;  (3)  loosening,  so  far  as  possible,  the 
chains  of  administrative  control,  which  should  exercise  its  authority 
only  in  very  grave  cases  and  always  subject  to  possible  appeal  to  a 
supreme  jurisdiction  against  abuses.919 

A  lively  debate  arose  at  the  next  party  convention  in  1907, 
where  the  majority  sentiment  in  favor  of  regionalism  wias 
vigorously  opposed  by  minority  speakers.  M.  Souriac,  who 
had  analyzed  the  replies  to  a  questionnaire  on  the  topic,  pre- 
sented the  case  for  decentralization  and  regionalism.  Geo- 
graphical environment,  he  observed,  has  a  profound  influence 
upon  human  life;  hence  arises  the  necessity  of  allowing  men 
living  in  the  same  environment  to  seek  the  most  suitable  means 
of  adjusting  themselves  to  the  local  situation.  If  each  region 
were  allowed  freely  to  develop  its  own  prosperity,  general  pros- 
perity could  only  be  promoted.920  It  was  not  proposed  to 
restore  exactly  the  historic  "provinces."  Some  of  them  had 
been  unwieldy  in  size,  others  far  too  small.  Moreover,  rail- 
ways, canals,  and  the  development  of  modern  industry  had 
created  new  local  interests  and  affiliations.  The  new  regions 
should  conform  to  the  economic  facts  of  today  quite  as  much 
as  to  the  historic  facts  of  yesterday.  Twenty-one  was  sug- 
gested as  the  number  of  regions.921 

In  each  region  a  representative  assembly  would  be  created, 
elected  perhaps  by  the  organized  economic  and  professional 
interests.  Questions  concerning  local  roads,  railways,  other 
public  utilities,  and  local  economic  interests  could  well  be 
transferred  from!  the  national  government,  which  too  often 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  277 

acted  with  partisan  bias,  to  the  regional  assemblies.  As  there 
would  be  only  21  instead  of  86  local  government  centers,  each 
would  become  more  important ;  it  would  be  the  seat  of  the  re- 
gional court  of  appeal,  the  local  university,  the  army-corps, 
as  well  as  of  the  assembly  and1  the  administration.  Around 
it  would  grow  up  a  flourishing  local  sentiment.  Local  customs 
and  fetes  would  be  revived.  Local  history  and  traditions 
would  be  taught.  Provincial  journalism  and  literature  would 
be  stimulated.  And  while  a  picturesque  and  colorful  differ- 
entiation between  the  regions  of  France  might  arise,  national 
patriotism  had  nothing  to  lose  thereby.  National  life  would 
but  be  enriched  and  national  loyalty  intensified  by  the  in- 
creased devotion  of  all  Frenchmen  to  their  country,  their  cus- 
toms and  traditions.922 

A  vision  of  the  future,  this,  not  an  immediately  practicable 
plan.  For  the  present,  M.  Souriac  recognized,  only  a  modest 
beginning  could  be  demanded  of  a  government  hostile  to  the 
regionalist  ideal.  He  therefore  proposed  for  the  immediate 
future,  that  the  general  councils  of  neighboring  departements 
be  permitted  to  hold  joint  sessions  and  to  deal  with  such  ques- 
tions as  local  railways,  asylums,  normal  schools,  agricultural 
schools,  and,  possibly,  poor  relief.  The  expense  of  such  enter- 
prises would  be  covered  by  surtaxes  (centimes  additionels  ex- 
traordinaire s}  ,923 

Furthermore,  the  communes  should  be  granted  a  larger  meas- 
ure of  autonomy.  Specifically,  they  should  have  greater  free- 
dom in  financial  matters,  greater  control  over  public  services 
and  primary  education ;  and  they  should  be  free  to  grant  sub- 
ventions to  religious  bodies.  As  a  check  on  the  possible  abuse 
of  such  power,  the  referendum  should  be  adopted  and  the 
right  of  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court  should  be  established.924 

M.  Souriac's  picture  of  the  existing  situation,  which  these 
reforms  were  designed  to  correct,  is  worth  reproducing  as  a 
commentary  on  centralized  government: 

If  the  existing  regime  manifests,  in  the  departments,  its  lack  of 
logic  and  its  disregard  of  the  most  natural  laws,  it  demonstrates 


278  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

its  oppressive  character  even  more  clearly  in  the  communes, 
where  it  takes  the  form  of  administrative  bureaucracy,  the  yoke  of 
which  .  .  .  tends  to  become  more  and  more  crushing  as  the  Jacobin 
policy  feels  the  need  of  imposing  its  odious  machinations  on  the 
country.  The  formidable  power  of  the  prefects  constantly  an- 
nihilates the  authority  of  the  mayors  and  municipal  councillors. 
Sometimes  this  is  done  directly,  in  the  extremely  numerous  cases 
where  the  prefect  can  substitute  his  own  action  for  that  of  the 
mayor,  or  annul  his  acts  and  the  deliberations  of  the  municipal 
council ;  at  other  times  [the  prefect  asserts  his  supremacy]  in- 
directly, by  menaces.  .  .  .  "If  you  dare  to  take  such  a  decision 
against  us,"  he  tells  the  municipality,  "  we  will  pay  you  back  by 
refusing  to  approve  your  budgets  or  by  blocking  all  the  measures 
for  which  you  need  our  help."  Certain  prefects  have  thus  come 
to  exercise  a  scandalous  pressure  at  the  time  of  elections,  con- 
straining mayors  and  councillors  to  influence  the  persons  under 
their  administration  (and  God  know  all  that  signifies!)  in  favor 
of  a  candidate  who  often  represents  opinions  opposed  to  theirs.925 

(f)  One  other  important  political  reform  remains  to  be 
mentioned,  the  referendum.  Here  again,  the  dominant  motive 
is  distrust  of  irresponsible  parliamentary  majorities  as  unrep- 
resentative of  the  popular  will.  Increasingly  democratic  na- 
tions have  felt  the  force  of  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau's  criticism  of 
representative  government,  that  the  nation  was  free  only  at 
the  time  of  elections.926  Once  elected,  parliaments  can  not  be 
compelled  to  obey  the  public  opinion.  Moreover,  where  elec- 
tions are  contested  on  diverse  issues,  one  cannot  even  be  sure 
what  is  the  opinion  of  the  majority.  The  referendum  is  often 
proposed  as  the  logical  corrective  of  parliamentary  irresponsi- 
bility, as  the  most  accurate  means  of  ascertaining  public 
opinion. 

At  its  convention  of  1906,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  cau- 
tiously proposed  that  the  referendum  be  introduced  in  muni- 
cipal affairs,  and  gradually  extended  to  questions  of  regional 
and  professional  scope.927  In  1911,  however,  the  party  took 
a  bolder  stand.  "  Considering," —  so  ran  the  resolution  adopted 
by  the  1911  convention, — 

that  the  laws  voted  by  parliament  are  not  always  the  expression  of 
the  will  of  the  nation,  and  that  the  unlimited  power  of  parliament 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  279 

constitutes  the  most  dangerous  of  dictatorships;  be  it  resolved 
that  the  nation  should  be  called  upon,  by  means  of  the  referendum 
to  pronounce  judgment  upon  important  laws  of  general  interest 
touching  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  citizens.928 

"  LIBERALISM  "  AND  RELIGION 

While  its  program  of  political  reforms  would  entitle  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  to  call  itself  "  liberal "  in  the  sense 
often  given  to  that  term  in  Anglo-Saxon  countries,  to  imply 
that  the  party  was  "  liberal "  in  all  matters  would  be  a  gross 
error.  It  is  certainly  not  "  liberal "  in  the  manner  of  the 
classical  economists,  to  whom  liberty  meant  the  freedom  of 
industry  from  regulation.  And  most  of  all  it  would  be  a  mis- 
take to  assert  that  the  party  represented  "  liberalism "  or 
"  modernism,"  as  opposed  to  "  ultramontanism  "  or  to  the  strict 
interpretation  of  religious  dogmas. 

As  regards  religious  questions,  it  must  be  observed,  at  the 
outset,  that  the  party  is  not  an  exclusively  Catholic  party,  but 
rather  a  political  and  social  party.  It  opens  its  ranks,  in  the 
words  of  an  official  pamphlet,  "  to  all  those  who  accept  our 
program  of  true  liberty  and  social  justice."929  It  does  not 
make  religious  belief  a  condition  of  membership,  or  an  article 
of  its  program.  In  short,  it  takes  no  position  as  a  party,  re- 
specting theological  dogmas  or  purely  religious  questions. 

In  its  membership,  however,  the  party  is  predominantly  if 
not  exclusively  Catholic,  and  this  because  its  political  program, 
in  so  far  as  it  concerns  the  relations  of  church  and  state,  does 
not  appeal  to  non-Catholics.  Moreover,  the  leaders  of  the 
party  have  been  drawn  from  among  the  most  ardently  Catholic 
politicians.  M.  Piou,  the  president  of  the  organization,  has 
rarely  neglected  an  opportunity  to  defend  the  interests  of  the 
Catholic  Church.  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  who  held  the  office 
of  vice-president  until  his  death,  was  in  his  private  life  most 
devoutly  religious,  and  in  his  public  life  most  emphatically 
Catholic;  his  unreserved  acceptance  of  papal  authority,  more- 
over, marked  him  as  an  "  ultramontane  " ;  his  membership  in 
the  party  would  of  itself  be  sufficient  proof  that  the  organiza- 


280  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

tion  was  not  in  any  sense  heterodox,  or  "  modernist,"  or  op- 
posed to  ultramontanism. 

The  "  liberalism  "  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  therefore, 
cannot  be  interpreted  as  liberalism  in  dogmas  or  in  faith,  but 
merely  as  advocacy  of  certain  liberties  in  politics.  "  In  po- 
litical matters,"  said  M.  Piou,  "  liberalism  properly  understood 
is  a  germ  of  progress;  in  matters  of  religious  doctrine  it  is 
the  abandonment  of  the  truth  and  the  beginning  of  confu- 
sion." 93°  M.  Eugene  Flornoy,  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of  the 
party,  phrases  this  conception  tersely: 

The  word  [liberal]  needs  to  be  defined;  it  means  the  defense  of 
religious,  civic,  and  economic  liberties,  menaced  by  Masonic,  Jacobin, 
and  socialist  tyranny,  not  a  philosophic  thesis  inherited  from  dog- 
matic liberalism.  The  distinction  is  essential.  It  must  be  insisted 
upon,  since  some  minds  are  troubled  about  it.  ... 

Free-Masonry  refuses  religious  liberty  to  Catholics,  Jacobinism 
refuses  civic  liberty  to  citizens,  socialism  denies  economic  liberty 
to  the  various  elements  of  labor.  To  this  triple  denial,  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  replies  with  a  triple  affirmation.931 

By  what  means  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  sought  to  pre- 
serve industrial  liberty  while  safeguarding  the  rights  of  the 
workingmen,  and  to  secure  political  liberty  with  democracy,  the 
foregoing  sections  have  attempted  to  explain.  It  remains  to  be 
seen  what  was  understood  by  religious  liberty. 

In  the  first  place,  it  meant  liberty  of  ecclesiastical  organiza- 
tion, "  the  right  for  the  Church  to  organize  itself  as  it  will." 
In  the  constitution  of  the  Republic,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party 
would  inscribe,  as  an  inviolable  right,  "  freedom  of  conscience, 
and  of  belief,  and,  therefore,  of  the  various  religious  confes- 
sions, which  should  be  allowed  to  observe  their  own  particular 
rules  of  organization."  932  This  right  of  independent  organiza- 
tion was  violated  by  the  law  of  Dec.  9,  1905,  separating  Church 
and  state.  Under  the  terms  of  the  law,  the  churches  and  the 
former  property  of  the  church  (or  at  least  so  much  of  the 
property  as  was  not  confiscated)  were  to  be  handed  over  to 
"associations  for  religious  worship"  (associations  cultuelles), 
organized  on  lines  laid  down  by  the  law*.  In  case  several  rival 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  281 

associations  professing  to  represent  the  same  religion  dis- 
puted possession  of  a  given  church,  the  council  of  state  was 
to  judge  between  them.933  The  Catholics  disliked  this  pro- 
vision, first,  because  it  tended  to  substitute  lay  associations  for 
the  clergy  in  the  control  of  religious  worship,  and,  secondly, 
because  it  virtually  made  a  political,  non-Catholic  body,  the 
council  of  state,  the  supreme  judge  of  orthodoxy.934  This  was 
not  freedom  of  religious  organization.  Count  Albert  de  Mun 
declared  that  no  legal  organization  of  the  Church  in  France 
was  possible  without  a  previous  agreement  with  the  Holy  See, 
and  his  view  seems  to  have  been  accepted  by  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party  in  its  convention  of  1909. 935  In  other  words,  if  the  state 
attempted  to  legislate  upon  the  subject  of  church  organization, 
the  principle  of  religious  liberty  demanded  that  the  proposed 
laws  be  acceptable  to  the  supreme  representative  of  the  re- 
ligious organization  in  question. 

In  the  second  place,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  demanded 
liberty  of  association  for  the  Catholic  monastic  orders  as  well 
as  for  non-Catholic  organizations.  "  Liberty  for  all,  so  be 
it!  "  said  M.  Piou  in  1901,  "but  liberty  for  the  religious  orders 
just  as  well  as  for  Free-Masonry  and  for  the  Socialist 
Union."  936  Now  the  Associations  Law  of  1901  required  that 
no  religious  order  could  exist  without  special  authorization  by 
an  act  of  parliament  defining  the  functions  of  the  order  (art. 
13).  Religious  orders  already  in  existence  must  obtain  such 
authorization  or  disband  (art.  18).  No  new  establishments 
(such  as  the  hospitals  or  schools)  could  be  founded  even  by 
authorized  religious  orders  without  the  permission  of  the 
council  of  state  (art  15).  Moreover,  the  council  of  ministers 
was  given  the  power  to  revoke  the  authorization  of  any  order 
(art.  13). 937  This  law  placed  the  monastic  orders  at  the 
mercy  of  the  anticlerical  majority  in  parliament.  A  large 
number  of  the  demands  for  authorization  were  flatly  refused, 
and  religious  orders  were  suppressed  by  the  score.  The  con- 
vents and  property  of  the  unauthorized  orders  were  confis- 
cated, leaving  their  former  inmates  homeless.  Hundreds  fled 
to  foreign  countries,  where  they  found  greater  tolerance  than 


282  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

in  France.938  Freedom  of  association,  therefore,  was  a  very 
real  issue.  What  the  leaders  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  de- 
manded was  equality  of  rights  for  Catholic  and  non-Catholic 
associations.  They  felt  that  it  was  unjust  to  require  a  special 
legislative  act  for  the  authorization  of  a  religious  order,  when 
other  associations  could  be  formed  freely.  In  the  words  of 
M.  Piou, 

If  it  requires  a  law  to  permit  the  Trappists  to  cultivate  the  soil 
in  silence,  or  the  Carmelites  to  rise  at  night  for  prayer,  why  does 
it  not  require  a  law  for  these  trade-unions  in  which  the  world 
of  labor  concentrates  its  millions  of  adherents,  or  for  this  Socialist 
Union  which  covers  the  entire  country  with  its  groups,  or  for  this 
society  [Free-Masonry],  at  once  official  and  secret,  cosmopolitan 
and  French,  which  may  be  described  as  a  sword  with  its  hilt  in  the 
Grand-Orient  and  its  point  wherever  one  governs,  wherever  one 
administers  .  .  .  ? 

Either  legal  authorization  for  all,  or  legal  authorization  for 
none.939 

In  the  third  place,  religious  liberty  implied  liberty  of  re- 
ligious education.  Upon  this  point,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party 
laid  great  stress.  There  were  two  principal  grievances.  First 
of  all,  the  public  schools,  for  which  Catholics  and  non-Catholics 
alike  were  taxed,  were  theoretically  "  neutral  "  as  regards  re- 
ligion, and  practically, —  since  many  teachers  were  hostile  to 
Catholicism, —  anti-Catholic.  That  this  was  the  case  was 
proved  by  M.  Piou  and  by  other  Liberals  in  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies,  in  19 io.940  The  Catholic  deputies  alleged  that  the 
original  attempt  at  religious  neutrality  had  succumbed  in  re- 
cent years  before  the  inroads  of  an  aggressive  atheism  which 
was  intolerant  enough  even  to  expurgate  mention  of  God  from 
literary  selections  in  school-books.  For  example,  La  Fontaine's 
couplet, 

"  Petit  poisson  deviendra  grand 

Pourvu  que  Dieu  lui  prete  vie  " 

had  been  somewhat  ludicrously  revised  to  read : 

"  Petit  poisson  deviendra  grand 
Pourvu  que  Von  lui  prete  vie." 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  283 

With  the  aim  of  proving  that  the  purpose  of  the  party  in 
power  was  to  use  the  public  schools  as  a  weapon  against  Chris- 
tianity, M.  Piou  cited  numerous  speeches  and  Writings  of  anti- 
clerical statesmen.  For  instance,  M.  Viviani  (quoted  by  M. 
Piou)  had  said, 

The  Republic  calls  to  herself  the  children  of  the  workers,  and  of 
the  peasants,  and  into  these  darkened  minds,  into  these  darkened 
consciences,  the  Republic  has  poured,  little  by  little,  the  revolution- 
ary ferment  of  education.  That  has  not  been  enough.  Through 
our  older  citizens,  through  our  parents,  we  have  snatched  religious 
belief  away  from  human  consciences. 

This  situation  had  arisen  as  the  result  of  two  laws, —  the  law 
of  March  28,  1882,  which  while  making  primary  instruction  ob- 
ligatory and  establishing  free  public  schools,  omitted  religious 
instruction  from  the  curriculum  of  the  public  schools,941  and 
the  law  of  Oct.  30,  1886,  providing  for  the  lai'cization  of  the 
teaching  staff  in  the  public  schools.942  Secondly,  the  members 
of  the  Catholic  religious  orders  were  forbidden  to  teach  either 
in  private  or  public  schools.  The  Law  of  Associations  of 
1901  had  prohibited  members  of  the  unauthorized  orders  to 
give  instruction.943  The  law  of  July  7,  1904,  had  gone  a  step 
further,  decreeing  that  "  teaching  of  every  grade  and  of  every 
kind  is  interdicted  in  France  to  the  congregations  [i.  e.,  re- 
ligious orders] ." 944  Since  the  Catholic  private  schools  were 
for  the  most  part  conducted  by  the  religious  orders,  these  laws 
struck  a  severe  blow  at  Catholic  education;  to  continue  their 
schools,  the  Catholics  had  to  create  a  staff  of  lay  teachers, — 
no  easy  task. 

In  the  face  of  these  difficulties,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party 
inscribed  in  its  program  "  liberty  of  education  and  of  paternal 
or  tutelary  authority  as  concerns  the  education  of  children  "  945 
and  "  Repartition  proportionnelle  scolaire."  The  former  im- 
plied that  members  of  Catholic  religious  orders  should  be  free 
as  other  citizens  to  teach  or  to  maintain  schools,  and  that  the 
right  of  Catholics  to  have  private  schools  should  not  be  con- 
travened. Parents  should  be  free  to  choose  to  which  school 


THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

they  should  send  their  children  and,  if  they  so  desired,  to  pre- 
vent their  children  from  receiving  what  they  considered  im- 
moral or  irreligious  instruction.  By  the  awkward  phrase, 
Repartition  proportionnelle  scolaire,  was  meant  that  the  public 
funds,  derived  from  taxation  of  Catholic  and  non-Catholic 
citizens  alike,  should  be  used  for  the  support  of  Catholic  and 
non-Catholic  schools  alike,  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
children  attending  each.  It  was  admitted  that  the  state  should 
not  be  asked  to  bear  the  cost  of  founding  private  schools,  or 
to  support  private  schools  whose  attendance  was  small  and 
existence  precarious.  But  for  well-established  schools,  the 
principle  of  proportional  subvention  should  apply  to  the  run- 
ning expenses  and  to  the  supplies  (food,  clothing,  etc.}  given 
to  poor  children.  This,  said  the  orators  of  the  party,  was 
the  minimum  of  justice  and  liberty.  In  M.  Piou's  words, — 

What?  The  Government  requires  all  the  citizens  to  contribute 
for  the  support  of  education,  and  uses  the  taxes  which  the  Catholics 
pay  to  impose  on  their  children  an  anti-Catholic,  anti-Christian  doc- 
trine !  But  that  is  robbery !  .  .  . 

What  should  be  done  then?  Employ  the  system  ...  of  sub- 
sidized liberty.  Each  will  found  the  kind  of  school  he  wishes,  and 
the  State  will  be  obliged  to  share  the  expenses  of  these  schools  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  their  pupils.946 

Repartition  proportionnelle  scolaire  was  one  of  the  principal 
points  in  the  program  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party.  It  was 
often  referred  to  as  "  R.  P.  S.,"  and  associated  with  Repre- 
sentation proportionnelle  and  Representation  professionnelle  to 
form  a  trilogy,  the  so-called  "  three  R.  P.'s,"  the  best-known 
feature  of  the  party  platform. 

By  way  of  criticism,  Leon  Jacques,  historian  of  "  The  Polit- 
ical Parties  under  the  Third  Republic,"  observes  that  if  the 
principle  of  educational  freedbm  with  the  R.  P.  S.  were 
granted,  the  revolutionary  syndicalists  would  have  quite  as 
good  a  right  as  the  Catholics  to  found  separate  schools  for 
the  dissemination  of  their  particular  philosophy,  and  to  claim 
government  support  for  such  schools.  "  That  is  the  danger," 
he  concludes,  "  of  too  simple  formulas,  '  of  ideas  of  blind 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  285 

justice.'     The  school  question  is  much  too  complex  and  too 
delicate  to  be  solved  by  the  R.  P.  S.  alone."  947 

SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  AND  THE  RELIGIOUS  QUESTION 

It  has  been  necessary  to  indicate  the  religious  program  of 
the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  because  religious  questions  have 
played  so  large  a  role  in  the  politics  of  the  Third  Republic. 
Perhaps  it  will  not  be  without  interest  also  to  suggest  the  re- 
lation between  the  religious  question  and  the  social  question, 
as  regards  the  attitude  of  the  party. 

In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  recalled  that  the  program  bor- 
rowed by  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  from  the  Social  Catholic 
movement  was  based,  in  principle,  upon  Christianity.  To 
strive  for  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  working 
classes  was  considered  a  duty  imposed  by  religion.  This  was 
a  thought  which  the  party's  leaders  never  tired  of  repeating. 
M.  Piou,  speaking  at  the  party  convention  of  1906,  expressed 
the  idea  in  these  words : 

Reforms,  even  bold  reforms,  which  tend  to  bring  the  different 
conditions  of  men  closer  together,  to  give  the  greatest  possible 
well-being  to  those  who  earn  their  bread  by  the  sweat  of  their 
brow,  to  alleviate  so  many  unjust  sufferings,  to  relieve  so  much 
unmerited  wretchedness,  do  not  inspire  us  with  the  slightest  terror. 
We  regard  them  as  the  acquittance  of  a  sacred  debt  which  a  sublime 
law  has  imposed  upon  the  fortunate  and  the  powerful  in  favor  of 
the  disinherited  and  the  weak.948 

He  made  it  even  plainer  in  an  address  at  the  convention  of 
1907: 

A  distinguished  atheist  once  said, —  and  that  time  he  was  right, 
— "If  all  the  Christians  did  their  duty,  the  social  question  would 
be  solved." 

If  all  do  not  do  their  duty,  let  us  do  ours  at  least.  We  alone 
shall  not  solve  the  social  problem ;  but  if  we  succeed  in  alleviating 
some  unmerited  sufferings,  in  contributing  a  little  to  the  well-being 
of  some  disinherited  homes,  in  pacifying  some  spirits  by  justice, 
some  hearts  by  kindness,  we  shall  have  satisfied  our  consciences 
and  rendered  good  service  to  our  country.949 


286  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

On  another  occasion,  Piou  declared  that  to  be  truly  a  Christian 
was  to  observe,  as  regards  the  workingman,  the  first  of  the 
divine  laws,  "  to  be  the  friend,  the  brother  of  the  humblest 
and  hold  out  both  hands  to  lift  him  from  his  poverty  and  to 
help  him  to  rise."  95° 

Similarly  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  vice-president  of  the  party, 
affirmed  unequivocally  that  reforms  in  the  interest  of  social 
justice  were  dictated  by  Christianity. 

Therefore,  gentlemen,  Catholicism  being  essentially  a  social  re- 
ligion,—  which  nobody  among  us  disputes, —  its  action  must  neces- 
sarily be  extended  beyond  personal  questions,  beyond  individual 
relationships :  it  must  be  extended  to  the  very  life  of  society,  to 
all  the  relationships  to  which  it  gives  birth,  and  particularly  to 
those  engendered  by  economic  life,  for  economic  life  involves  all 
the  questions  which  most  directly  concern  humanity, —  the  family 
and  its  subsistence,  property  and  its  use,  public  peace  and  the 
prosperity  of  the  nation. 

In  this  order  of  ideas,  it  is  not  merely  a  question  of  alleviating 
poverty  and  succoring  destitution,  it  is  a  question  of  guaranteeing 
social  rights ;  it  is  no  longer  a  question  merely  of  charity,  but  a 
question  of  justice.951 

And  de  Mun  went  on  to  develop  the  corollaries  of  this  proposi- 
tion: social  legislation  favorable  to  labor  organization,  insur- 
ance of  the  workers  against  accidents,  sickness,  and  old  age, 
and  protection  against  unsafe  or  unhealthful  conditions.  The 
program  is  already  so  familiar  to  the  reader  of  these  pages 
that  it  need  hardly  be  repeated  here. 

But  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  emphasized  its  social  pro- 
gram not  merely  because  of  a  sense  of  duty.  There  was  also 
an  element  of  political  calculation.  As  the  anticlericals  be- 
came increasingly  aggressive  in  their  attitude  toward  the 
Church,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  desiring  to  avert  further 
anti-Catholic  legislation,  would  have  preferred  that  parliament 
concern  itself  more  with  the  workingman  and  less  with  the 
pope.  One  of  the  most  interesting  cases  in  point  was  the 
parliamentary  debate  of  February  10,  1905. 

At  that  moment,  it  was  a  question  whether  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  should  devote  itself  to  the  long-pending  question  of 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  287 

old-age  pensions  for  workingmen,  or  to  the  question  of  separ- 
ating Church  and  State.  M.  Theodore  Denis,  a  member  of 
the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  wished  to  interpellate  the  Govern- 
ment "  on  the  necessity  of  discussing  andl  voting  the  law  on 
workingmen's  pensions  before  the  bill  for  the  separation  of 
Church  and  State." 952  His  interpellation  was  postponed  by 
the  Government,  but  another  interpellation,  on  the  strictly  ec- 
clesiastical question  of  what  was  to  be  done  about  the  nomina- 
tion of  bishops  to  fill  certain  vacancies,  was  discussed  at  great 
length.  After  several  hours  of  debate,  M.  Denis  rose  to  re- 
mark — 

Well,  gentlemen,  you  have  passed  an  agreeable  afternoon. 
(Laughter)  .  .  .  For  three  hours  we  have  been  talking  about  the 
religious  question !  For  my  part,  I  begin  to  feel  a  sentiment  of 
shame.  During  the  past  six  years  we  have  been  spending  four- 
fifths  of  our  time  discussing  problems  of  comparative  theology. 
(Laughter  and  applause  from  various  benches)  .  .  . 

I  said  that  for  six  years  past  the  French  Chamber  has  trans- 
formed itself  into  an  interminable  conference,  in  which  Huguenots 
and  papists,  turn  and  turn  about,  come  and  argue  without  sparing 
us  the  least  detail  of  their  religious  controversies. 

We  have  returned  to  the  height  of  the  sixteenth  century,  with 
the  difference  that  in  place  of  arquebuses  we  use  stamped  paper, 
which  is  quite  as  formidable,  and  that  instead  of  putting  the  van- 
quished to  death,  one  is  content  to  despoil  them  of  their  belongings. 

For  six  years  past,  Protestant  pastors,  Free-Mason  preachers, 
unfrocked  priests  or  cassocked  cures  (Laughter)  monopolize  our 
discussions  and  argue  us  deaf,  dumb,  and  blind,  while  we  serve 
as  a  laughing-stock  for  rival  nations,  which  during  that  time  have 
progressed  in  the  vast  international  field  of  commerce  and  industry 
and  have  realized  praiseworthy  social  ameliorations  at  home  (Ap- 
plause from  the  Center  and  Right.)  953 

This  was  a  little  more  than  the  Government  could  bear  in 
silence.  The  president  of  the  council  himself  hastened  to  re- 
buke M.  Denis  for  asserting  that  France  was  a  laughing-stock. 
Did  not  many  nations  come  to  borrow  from  France  ?  Whereat 
M.  de  Ramel,  a  clerical,  exclaimed  that  "  the  French  Republic 
is  more  backward  than  all  the  monarchies,  as  concerns  social 
reforms."  Unwilling  to  let  such  a  taunt  pass,  M.  Deveze,  a 


288  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

socialist,  retorted,  ''  It  is  the  clericalism  of  France  which  is 
the  laughing-stock  of  Europe."  954 

M.  Denis,  continuing  his  speech  after  these  interruptions, 
said  that  the  question  was  really  very  simple  and  very  clear. 
"  Yes  or  no.  Does  the  Chamber  wish  to  decide,  at  last,  to 
keep  the  promises  made  so  long  ago  to  the  workingmen  ? " 
As  the  time  was  short,  the  Chamber  mjust  choose  between  vot- 
ing the  separation  of  church  and)  state,  for  which  it  had  no 
mandate,  and  voting  a  law  on  old-age  pensions,  which  had  been 
promised  for  years. 

Whereas  the  separation  of  church  and  state  was  promised  by 
less  than  a  hundred  deputies,  a  large  majority  among  us  pledged 
ourselves  to  vote  the  workingmen's  pensions.  Why  should  we  de- 
liberately break  these  pledges  today? 

The  time  had  come,  he  declared,  for  the  Republicans  to 
change  their  policy.  Two  courses  were  open.  Some  people 
held  it  would  be  better  "  to  think  much  less  about  the  pope 
and  much  more  about  the  people"  (Applause  on  the  Right). 
Others  thought  it  better  to  keep  on  interminably  rolling  the 
Sisyphus'  rock  of  religious  war.  Speaking  for  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party,  M.  Denis  added,  "  wte  ask  the  Chamber  not  to 
sacrifice  the  interests  of  millions  of  workingmen  to  the  fan- 
tasies of  a  handful  of  fanatics."  Accordingly,  M.  Denis  pro- 
posed the  following  motion : 

The  Chamber,  affirming  its  confidence  in  the  Government,  and 
resolved  to  bring  the  law  on  workingmen's  pensions  to  completion, 
decides  that  the  discussion  of  this  law  will  be  placed  on  the  agenda 
immediately  after  the  vote  of  the  Army  Bill.955 

As  M.  Denis  took  his  seat,  amidst  the  applause  and  con- 
gratulations of  his  friends,  Marquis  de  1'Estourbeillon,  another 
member  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  ejaculated,  "  The  people 
will  see,  once  again,  who  are  its  friends."  The  anticlerical 
majority,  however,  rejected  the  motion,  and  decided  that  the 
Budget,  the  Army  Bill,  and  the  Separation  of  Church  and  State 
should  be  given  precedence  over  Workingmen's  Pensions.958 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  289 

The  question  arises,  why  were  the  opponents  of  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  so  much  more  eager  to  enact  laws  unfavorable 
to  the  Church  than  laws  favorable  to  the  workingmen.  M. 
Piou  offers  an  explanation,  which  we  quote  because  it  illumines 
his  point  of  view,  but  regarding  the  merits  of  which  the 
reader  must  be  left  to  judge  for  himself. 

Twenty-five  years  ago  there  was  founded,  in  our  country,  a 
school  [of  politicians]  which  had  no  program  other  than  anticler- 
icalism ;  it  lived  on  that  issue  and  on  that  alone.  This  school  is  com- 
posed of  men  who  had  called  themselves  reformers,  ready  to  change 
the  whole  aspect  of  society ;  they  wished  to  destroy  all,  to  reform 
all.  Once  in  power,  they  deemed  it  simpler  to  inhabit  the  house 
which  they  had  proposed  to  destroy;  the  arrangements  seemed  com- 
fortable, and  the  furniture,  though  a  little  in  the  style  of  the  Em- 
pire, was  much  to  their  taste.  The  old  abuses,  so  often  denounced, 
became  pillows,  whereon  the  new  masters  enjoyed  the  most  agree- 
able repose,  otium  cum  dignitate. 

When  the  people  become  impatient,  when  the  clients  complain 
and  demand  the  promised  reforms,  they  start  to  cry :  "  The  gov- 
ernment of  priests  is  advancing  against  us,  down  with  clerical- 
ism !  "  And  the  crowd,  seized  with  fear,  and  believing  that  it  sees 
a  black  spectre  rising  up  before  its  eyes,  repeats,  "  No  government 
of  priests ;  down  with  clericalism !  "  957 

Having  employed  the  Socialists  as  parliamentary  allies  against 
clericalism,  the  bourgeois  Republicans  were  still  unwilling  to 
pay  the  price  of  the  alliance  by  conceding  economic  reforms. 
Nothing  remained  but  to  raise  the  cry  of  "  Clericalism,  that  is 
the  enemy,"  more  strenuously  than  ever.  For,  M.  Piou  dfe- 
clared,  they  judged  it  "  easier  and  less  dangerous  to  sacrifice 
the  Catholics  than  to  satisfy  the  Socialists."  958  Seated  com- 
fortably at  the  "  banquet  table  "  themselves,  they  used  "  cler- 
icalism "  as  a  bugbear  to  frighten  others  away.959 

The  Socialists,  on  the  other  hand,  had  allowed  themselves 
to  become  the  tools  of  the  bourgeois  anticlericals,  said  Count 
Albert  de  Mun,  who  showed  the  reverse  side  of  the  picture 
painted  by  Piou.  Prior  to  1893,  according  to  de  Mun,  parlia- 
ment had  voted  some  social  reforms,  with  much  hesitation  to 
be  sure ;  but  at  any  rate  the  law  of  1884  on  trade-unions,  that 


290  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

of  1892  on  the  employment  of  women  and  children,  and  that 
of  1893  on  accidents  and  hygiene,  had  been  enacted.  It  was 
not  the  socialists  who  had  achieved  the  reforms,  for  the  social- 
ists at  that  time  counted  for  little  in  the  legislature ;  the  reforms 
had  resulted  from  the  collaboration  of  men  of  all  the  parties, 
and  had  been  prepared  by  studies  and  researches  in  which, 
said  de  Mun,  the  Social  Catholics  had  borne  "  a  very  large 
part."  Since  1893,  when  the  socialists  had  entered  the  Cham- 
ber of  Deputies,  and  especially  since  1898,  when  they  became 
"masters  of  the  majority,"  what  had!  they  accomplished? 
"  Nothing  has  been  done  for  the  people,"  de  Mun  replied ; 
"  there  have  been  inflammatory  speeches,  confused  expositions 
of  collectivist  doctrines,  but  as  for  results,  nothing  except  the 
Dreyfus  Affair,  the  Associations  Law,  the  disorganization  of 
the  army,  and  the  religious  war,  that  is  to  say,  the  preparation 
for  the  social  war." 

That  is  what,  in  five  years,  the  Socialists  have  given  the  people. 
On  the  contrary,  look  across  the  border,  and  see  what  is  happen- 
ing in  Belgium ;  there  the  Catholics  have  been  in  power  twenty 
years  and  no  state  in  Europe  today  has  a  more  advanced,  a  more 
constantly  and  boldly  progressive  social  legislation.  It  is  a  striking 
contrast,  and  I  advise  you  to  present  it  frequently  before  the  eyes 
of  the  country.960 

The  fatal  mistake  of  the  Socialists,  as  de  Mun  saw  it,  was 
to  have  so  vaunted  the  anticlerical  program  while  they  were 
in  the  opposition  that  they  knew  no  other  when  they  arrived 
in  power. 

They  reduced  their  ideas  of  government,  the  ideas  which  had  given 
them  their  strength,  to  the  narrow  measure  of  a  program  of  perse- 
cution, urged  on  ...  by  that  hatred  of  Christianity  which  under- 
lies all  the  revolutionary  doctrine;  .  .  .  and,  instead  of  remaining 
an  independent  party,  proud  of  its  ideas,  they  subordinated  their 
policy  to  that  of  Free-Masonry,  of  the  Free-Masonry  which  adores 
negations,  as  Goyau  says,  and  which  has  need  neither  of  affirma- 
tions, nor  of  programs,  nor  of  reforms,  since  all  its  doctrine  is  re- 
duced to  negation,  to  hatred  of  Christianity.  .  .  .  For  the  Social- 
ist party,  it  is  the  beginning  of  bankruptcy.961 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  291 

There  was  undoubtedly  an  element  of  truth  in  de  Mun's  ob- 
servation. Certain  of  the  Socialist  leaders,  it  can  hardly  be 
denied,  gave  anticlerical  legislation  precedence  over  economic 
reform.  Other  Socialists  and  Syndicalists  who  wished  econ- 
omic reforms  to  come  first,  did  not  fail  to  point  out  the  danger 
of  diverting  attention  from  economic  to  religious  questions. 
For  example,  Raoul  Briquet,  writing  for  the  Mouvement  social- 
iste  of  Aug.  15,  1902,  declared  that  the  capitalists  were  using 
the  religious  question  as  a  red  herring  to  throw  the  Socialists 
off  the  scent. 

These  cure-eaters  [i.  e.,  bourgeois  anticlericals]  do  not  care  to 
be  "  eaten "  by  the  workingmen.  For  them  anticlericalism  is  a 
convenient  diversion,  by  which  they  win  the  support  of  the  pro- 
letariat against  the  clericals  while  at  the  same  time  they  can  avert 
from  capitalism  the  ardor  of  their  fiery  ally.  Indeed,  whilst  anti- 
clerical demagogy  rages  in  Socialist  circles,  labor  policy  is  suffering 
a  prolonged  check :  social  laws  remain  unfinished  on  the  parlia- 
mentary work-table;  every  day  the  courts  of  commerce  revise 
with  monstrous  partiality  the  decisions  of  the  trade  boards ;  the 
civil  tribunals  interpret  in  a  reactionary  sense  the  law  on  accidents; 
the  Millerand-Colliard  law 962  is  systematically  violated,  and  on 
the  very  day  when  the  Republican  and  Socialist  press  celebrated 
the  triumph  of  the  ministry  in  the  Chamber,  M.  Trouillot  [minister 
of  commerce,  industry,  posts,  and  telegraphs]  published  a  decree 
still  further  weakening  the  law.  It  is  deplorable  that  the  socialist 
party  should  be  absorbed  by  the  anticlerical  passion  to  the  point 
of  neglecting  its  essential  function. 

Alexandre  Millerand  was  another  of  the  Socialists  who  came 
to  feel  that  too  much  attention  was  being  given  to  clericalism, 
too  little  to  socialism.  But  when  Millerand,  in  1904,  com- 
plained that  the  campaign  against  the  religious  orders  threat- 
ened to  eclipse  entirely  the  question  of  social  legislation,  the 
great  socialist  leader,  Jean  Jaures,  impressively  warned  him 
not  to  forget  that  anticlericalism  was  the  only  means  of  holding 
the  Republican  and  Socialist  coalition,  the  famous  bloc,  to- 
gether for  later  social  reforms.  "  Ah,  take  care ! "  cried 
Jaures,  ".  .  .  you  imagine  perhaps  that  by  leading  the  ma- 
jority to  renounce  what  you  call  the  absorption,  the  hallucina- 


292  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

tion,  the  fascination  of  the  clerical  peril, —  you  imagine  that 
you  will  have  more  strength,  more  energy  for  social  reform. 
But  no !  ...  You  will  have  injured,  if  not  broken,  the  instru- 
ment of  action  [the  bloc]  and  you  will  not  repair  it."  963  To 
Jaures,  it  was  a  question  of  tactics.  Though  the  economic  pro- 
gram of  socialism  might  temporarily  be  neglected  in  favor  of 
anticlerical  legislation  —  for  which  the  Socialists  were  as  eager 
as  the  bourgeois  parties  —  a  time  would  come  when  out  of 
gratitude  the  bourgeois  parties  must  help  the  Socialists  to  vote 
social  reforms.  Moreover,  it  is  an  indisputable  fact  that  some 
of  the  Socialists  held  their  economic  program  before  the  Cham- 
ber most  persistently.  Nevertheless,  it  is  hard  to  understand 
why  France,  with  so  large  a  Socialist  delegation  in  Parliament, 
did  not  make  more  rapid  progress  in  social  legislation, —  unless 
the  explanation  offered  by  de  Mun  is  given  some  weight. 

The  very  fact  that  the  Socialists  were  inclined  to  emphasize 
the  anticlerical  rather  than  the  economic  side  of  their  program 
made  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  more  insistent  upon  the  social 
value  of  Christianity.  If  the  Socialists,  while  accusing  Christi- 
anity of  keeping  the  poor  in  subjection,  were  doing  little  them- 
selves to  help  the  workingmen  economically,  the  wisest  course 
for  the  Catholics  would  be  to  act  as  the  genuine  champions  of 
social  reform,  and  to  contrast  the  services  of  Christianity  with 
the  services  of  socialism  to  the  people.  Hence  we  hear  Piou, 
at  the  party  convention  of  1906,  declaring  that  although  the 
Socialists  pretended  to  have  a  monopoly  of  devotion  to  the 
people,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  was  really  the  most  faithful 
servant  of  the  masses. 

We  desire  their  progress ;  we  wish  the  condition  of  the  lower 
classes  to  be  improved;  ...  we  desire  that  all  those  who  earn  their 
bread  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow  should  have  an  easier  life,  wages 
more  sufficient  for  their  needs,  labor  more  in  proportion  to  their 
strength ;  we  wish  poverty  to  be  alleviated,  suffering  consoled ; 
and  we  ask  our  friends  all  over  France,  above  all,  to  promote  en- 
terprises for  the  assistance  of  the  toilers  and  of  the  down-trod- 
den. .  .  . 

If  the  government  is  animated  by  a  sincere  love  of  the  people,  if 
it  proposes  reforms  which  are  just,  we  are  ready  to  lend  our  aid. 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  293 

Resolute  as  we  are  to  defend  our  religious  convictions  against  the 
government.  .  .  we  are  just  as  strongly  disposed  to  collaborate 
with  it,  if  it  wishes,  when  dealing  with  social  reforms  which  are 
marked  with  the  seal  of  justice.  (Applause.)  But  what  we  will 
not  do  is  to  deceive  the  people.  .  .  .  964 

Above  all,  the  leaders  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  strove 
to  refute  the  charge  that  Christianity  was  "  other-worldly,"  in 
the  sense  that  its  aim  was  to  hold  out  the  promise  of  future 
rewards  for  passive  submission  to  social  injustice  in  this  life. 
"  To  defend  Christianity,"  said  Piou,  "  is  to  defend  the  social 
order." 

But  the  defense  will  be  effective  only  on  two  conditions :  first, 
that  we  keep  in  full  view,  always,  the  divine  beauties  of  its  social 
teachings,  of  that  law  of  love  and  fraternity  which  has  regenerated 
the  world  and  which  alone  prevents  the  world  from  returning  to 
paganism ;  second,  that  we  never  permit  the  masses  to  suppose  that 
the  prospect  of  eternal  happiness  obliges  them  to  submit  passively 
to  their  present  wretchedness  and  forbids  them  to  improve  their 
so  unhappy  condition.965 

That  Christianity  had  been  accused  of  indifference  to  social 
injustice  was  in  part  the  fault  of  the  Catholics,  said  Count 
Albert  de  Mun.  He  was  the  antagonist,  he  said,  not  only  of 
the  "  alarming  progress  of  socialism,"  but  also  of  "  the  inertia 
of  Catholics  who  abandon  to  socialism  the  duty  of  assuring  the 
protection  of  the  weak,  and  thus  abandon  a  part  of  their 
heritage."  He  protested, 

not  merely  against  the  calumny  which  discredits  the  Catholics  in 
the  minds  of  the  people,  but  against  the  abdication  which  favors 
this  calumny,  and  which  denatures  their  religion,  to  the  point 
where  it  appears,  to  deceived  eyes,  as  a  sort  of  social  gendarmerie, 
instituted  for  the  security  of  the  rich.966 

Too  often,  said  de  Mun,  "  the  Catholics  have  forgotten  the  fun- 
damental character  of  their  faith,  and  it  is  thus,  as  I  said  .  .  . 
that  they  have  allowed  socialism  to  despoil  them  of  a  portion 
of  their  heritage."  967 

That  the  Socialists  had  derived  from  Christianity  the  idea  of 


294  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

human  fraternity,  of  indignation  against  injustice,  of  pity  for 
suffering,  Piou  most  vigorously  maintained.  Christianity,  he 
said, 

lives  even  in  the  materialist  systems,  almost  all  of  which  borrow  its 
morality,  and  do  not  endure,  perhaps,  except  by  virtue  of  this  part 
of  the  Christian  heritage,  which  they  have  not  been  able  to  re- 
pudiate. 

It  is  found  even  at  the  bottom  of  socialism,  in  its  pity  for  human 
suffering,  an  entirely  Christian  sentiment,  by  which  socialism  fas- 
cinates and  attracts  the  crowds. 

Materialists  and  Socialists  unwittingly  undergo  the  influence  of 
the  Church,  which  they  call  "  the  eternal  enemy " ;  they  render  it 
homage  even  in  their  denials ;  they  proclaim  themselves  and  believe 
themselves  to  be  free-thinkers,  when  they  are  only  ungrateful 
tributaries  of  the  Gospel. 

What  more  striking  proof  of  its  permanent  vitality,  in  our 
troubled  times,  could  there  be,  than  this  obsession  with  social  re- 
forms by  which  all  minds  are  haunted,  than  this  immense  effort 
made  by  individuals  and  by  governments  to  ameliorate  the  condi- 
tion of  those  who  labor  and  suffer? 

Of  all  the  laws,  of  all  the  institutions,  springing  up  during  the 
last  century  from  the  idea  of  assisting  the  unfortunate  and  doing 
justice  to  the  workingmen,  one  might  make  a  great  collection  which 
would  be  a  glorious  monument  to  the  honor  of  humanity  and  a 
marvellous  act  of  faith  in  honor  of  Christianity.968 

All  that  was  really  good  in  socialism  had  been  borrowed  from 
the  precepts  of  the  Christian  religion.  This  was  a  favorite 
reply  to  attacks  on  the  Church  by  anti-clerical  Republicans  and 
Socialists. 

To  sum  up  the  foregoing  remarks,  it  might  be  said  that  the 
relation  between  the  social  question  and  the  religious  question 
as  affecting  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  was  twofold:  on  one 
hand,  when  the  Church  was  attacked  by  anticlericals,  the  party 
tended  to  assert  the  social  value  of  Christianity  with  all  the 
more  vigor;  on  the  other  hand,  when  socialists  and  bourgeois 
republicans  devoted  themselves  more  to  religious  than  to  labor 
problems,  the  party  perceived  and  exploited  at  its  full  value  the 
opportunity  to  accuse  its  opponents  of  being  less  sincere  than 
itself  in  the  desire  to  befriend  the  workingmen. 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  295 

PATRIOTISM 

Before  concluding  the  sketch  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party, 
one  other  great  political  issue  should  at  least  be  mentioned, 
namely,  patriotism.  For  patriotism  was  one  of  the  most 
strongly  marked  characteristics  of  the  party. 

If  no  rrtention  of  patriotism  is  found  in  the  program  of  the 
party  before  1914,  if  the  issue  is  almost  ignored  by  the  party 
conventions  from  1904  to  1911,  it  is  not  because  of  indiffer- 
ence; it  is  because  the  attitude  of  the  members  was  taken  for 
granted.  They  were  not  merely  patriotic,  but  ultrapatriotic. 
A  party  numbering  among  its  members  so  many  army  officers 
and  noblemen  could  hardly  be  otherwise.969 

Patriotism,  to  the  leaders  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  sig- 
nified in  the  first  place  pride  of  country  and  devotion  to  the 
national  progress.  Piou,  de  Mun,  and  other  members  of  the 
party  incessantly  recalled  the  historic  greatness  of  France,  re- 
buked the  anti-patriotic  tendencies  of  socialism,  syndicalism 
and  Free-Masonry,  and  exhorted  their  fellow-citizens  to  work 
together  in  harmony  for  the  greater  glory  and  prosperity  of 
France. 

In  the  second  place,  it  meant  a  strong  army.  The  members 
of  the  party  were  invariably  to  be  found  among  the  most  vehe- 
ment parliamentary  opponents  of  antimilitarism,  among  the 
most  vigorous  upholders  of  military  efficiency.  When  the  great 
political  contest  arose  in  1913-1914  regarding  the  Three  Year 
Military  Service  Law  which  the  socialists  opposed  as  militar- 
istic, the  Popular  Liberal  Party  made  support  of  the  Three 
Year  Law  one  of  the  principal  planks  in  its  platform  for  the 
elections  of  I9I4.970 

Patriotism  also  meant  insistence  upon  national  prestige  and 
defence  of  national  interests  abroad.  Count  Albert  de  Mun 
was  ever  proclaiming  the  necessity  of  a  strong  policy  in 
Africa.971  Piou  was  quite  as  emphatic  on  the  subject  of 
French  interests  overseas.  Perhaps  a  brief  quotation  from 
Piou's  speech  of  July  7,  1900,  on  the  Far  Eastern  Question  will 
best  exhibit  his  attitude: 


296  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

We  did  not  enter  China  for  humanitarian  considerations  alone, 
but  also  for  high  political  reasons. 

We  have  to  defend  there  not  only  our  own  nationals,  but  also  all 
those  whom  secular  conventions  have  placed  under  our  protection. 
We  have  to  defend  a  religious  protectorate  which  has  long  given 
us  an  unrivalled  primacy  in  that  country  and  which,  despite  the 
mutilations  it  has  suffered,  still  ensures  us  a  place  among  the  elite 
there.  We  have  to  defend  there,  finally, —  do  not  forget, —  an  im- 
portant material  interest,  that  is  to  say,  our  Tonkin  protectorate. 
In  the  past  we  could  disagree  regarding  the  necessity  of  acquiring 
that  protectorate.  Today,  it  is  our  own  property,  and  belongs  to 
our  national  patrimony.  The  soil  of  Tonkin,  sprinkled  with  so  much 
blood,  has  become  a  prolongation  of  the  French  mother-country, 
and  we  must  defend  it  as  we  would  defend  the  mother-country 
itself.972 

With  their  almost  chauvinistic  emphasis  on  the  army  and 
on  colonial  interests,  the  leaders  coupled  a  patriotic  sentiment 
of  a  more  constructive  nature.  Patriotism  meant  not  merely 
military  prowess  or  colonial  expansion,  but  also  a  fervent 
desire  to  make  the  mother-country  a  shining  example  of  social 
justice.  Speaking  at  the  party  convention  of  1914,  Piou  ex- 
pressed this  sentiment  in  eloquent  terms : 

We  believe  that  the  highest  ambition  of  a  nation  nourished  on  the 
marrow  of  the  Gospel  is  not  for  riches,  but  for  fraternity;  that 
true  glory  for  such  a  nation  consists  less  in  victories  won  by  fire 
and  sword  in  wars  with  its  neighbors,  than  in  victories  won  by 
devotion  and  justice  in  the  war  against  poverty  and  human  suf- 
fering.973 

The  great  war  of  1914-1919,  for  the  time  being  at  least, 
sealed  the  patriotism  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  with  the 
approval  of  public  opinion.  That  France  was  not  better  pre- 
pared for  the  conflict,  was  said  to  be  the  fault  of  Socialists, 
Syndicalists,  and  antimilitarists  generally,  who  had  delayed 
the  Three  Year  Service  Law,  who  had  honeycombed  the  army 
with  doctrines  of  antimilitarism,  internationalism,  and  insubor- 
dination ;  it  was  the  fault  of  the  successive  cabinets  which  had 
been  so  occupied  with  the  campaign  against  clericalism  that  they 
had  allowed  military  efficiency  to  be  impaired  by  favoritism,  by 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  297 

discrimination  against  Catholic  officers,  and  by  corruption.  As 
one  of  the  political  groups  which  had  most  consistently  advo- 
cated military  preparedness  and  most  impressively  warned  the 
country  against  the  perils  of  antimilitarism,  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party  found  in  the  war  an  endorsement  of  its  patriotic  stand. 

During  the  war  partisan  activities  were  virtually  suspended. 
The  young  men  among  the  leaders  and  parliamentary  repre- 
sentatives of  the  party  were  in  active  service  with  the  armies 
in  the  field.974  One  of  the  most  promising  members  of  the 
parliamentary  group,  Lt.  Col.  Driant,  was  killed  heroically  at 
Verdun,  exhorting  his  men  to  die  rather  than  yield  before  the 
German  attack.  Perhaps  the  most  pathetic  sacrifice  was  that 
of  Count  Albert  de  Mun.  Military  service  was,  of  course,  out 
of  the  question  for  a  man  of  his  age.  He  could  not  even  de- 
vote his  gift  of  oratory  to  the  national  cause,  for  he  had  long 
suffered  from  a  heart-disease  which  would  have  made  an  at- 
tempt to  speak  in  public  tantamount  to  suicide.  Any  unusual 
exertion  threatened  his  life.  His  sword  and  his  voice  had 
failed  him;  the  pen  alone  remained.  He,  therefore,  plunged 
into  journalism ;  every  day  a  patriotic  article  appeared  over 
his  name  in  the  Echo  de  Paris.  So  influential  were  his  articles, 
that  he  soon  won  the  name  of  "  minister  of  public  confidence." 
When  the  government  decided  to  publish  a  Bulletin  des  Armees 
for  the  benefit  of  the  soldiers  in  the  field,  de  Mun,  though  a 
"  clerical "  and  formerly  an  opposition  leader,  was  one  of  the 
first  writers  whose  collaboration  was  invited.  Fully  aware  that 
his  daily  articles  and  his  feverish  activity  were  killing  him,  he 
persisted,  refusing  to  spare  himself,  and  continued  his  work 
until  death  arrested  his  pen,  on  the  night  of  October  6-7,  1914. 
"  Albert  de  Mun  veritably  fell  on  the  field  of  battle,  having 
deliberately  and  voluntarily  sacrificed  his  life  for  France."  975 

The  vacant  seats,  decorated  with  a  ribbon,  in  sign  of  mourn- 
ing, in  the  sector  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  where  sat  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party,  gave  mute  but  eloquent  testimony  to 
the  manner  in  which  the  party  had  met  the  test  of  patriotism. 
And  even  a  casual  observer  of  the  Chamber's  debates  in  1919 
could  not  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  change  which  the  war 


298  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

had  wrought  in  the  alignment  of  parties.  Now  it  was  the 
Right  (including  the  Popular  Liberal  Party)  and  the  Center 
which  supported  Clemenceau  on  every  test  of  patriotism ;  it  was 
the  Extreme  Left  which  opposed  him.  As  far  as  patriotic 
questions  were  concerned,  the  party  had  become  a  member  of  a 
new  bloc,  hostile  to  the  Bolshevist  and  pacifist  or  internationalist 
tendencies  with  which  the  left  wing  of  the  Socialist  party  had 
become  identified. 

This  new  alignment  of  parties  held  good  in  the  general  elec- 
tions of  November,  1919,  when  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  en- 
tered an  electoral  coalition  with  other  patriotic  parties  for  the 
purpose  of  combating  Bolshevism.  By  presenting  combined 
lists  of  candidates,  the  coalition  parties  were  able  to  achieve  a 
notable  victory.  And  when,  after  the  elections,  the  Bloc  na- 
tional republicain  —  as  the  coalition  was  styled  —  held  a  great 
banquet  to  celebrate  its  triumph,  a  representative  of  the  Popu- 
lar Liberal  Party  was  found  among  the  principal  speakers  of 
•the  evening,  joining  with  the  leaders  of  the  Democratic  Repub- 
lican Alliance,  of  the  Republican  Federation,  and  of  the  Radical 
and  Socialist-Radical  Federation  of  the  Seine,  in  the  expression 
of  a  desire  to  perpetuate  the  "  Sacred  Union  "  which  had  been 
cemented  during  the  war.976 

Indeed,  it  appeared  that  for  the  time  being  at  least  the  "  New 
Spirit  "  of  religious  tolerance  and  reconciliation  had  reappeared. 
The  moderate  Republicans,  it  seemed,  had  revoked  the  decision 
of  1899  and  had  chosen  to  lean  on  the  Right,  rather  than  on 
the  Extreme  Left,  for  support.  Perhaps  the  most  striking  evi- 
dence of  the  altered  situation  was  the  fact  that  Alexandre 
Millerand,  as  premier,  introduced  a  bill  for  the  reopening  of 
diplomatic  relations  with  the  Holy  See.  Was  this  the  Alex- 
andre Millerand  who,  not  so  many  years  ago,  had  declared  that 
"  between  the  Republican  idea  and  the  Church  "  there  was  a 
"  struggle  without  mercy  "  ?  977  Was  this  the  Socialist  who  in 
1899  had  joined  the  bourgeois  anticlerical  cabinet  of  Wai  deck- 
Rousseau  and  by  so  doing  had  personified  the  policy  of  the 
anticlerical  bloc?  It  was  a  long  road  that  Millerand  had  trav- 
elled since  1899! 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  299 

SOME  CRITICISMS  OF  THE  PARTY 

It  is  too  early  to  predict  to  what  extent  the  patriotism  evinced 
by  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  during  the  war  will  disarm  hos- 
tile criticism  in  the  future.  Perhaps  it  would  not  be  rash, 
however,  to  assert  that  the  situation  will  not  be  fundamentally 
altered,  because  the  intransigent  reactionaries,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  more  anticlerical  among  the  Republicans  on  the  other 
hand,  will  still  see  in  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  an  enemy  of 
their  own  special  aims. 

Criticism  of  the  party  has  been  consistently  contradictory. 
One  critic  complains  that  the  party  is  too  cold,  a  second,  that 
it  is  too  hot.  The  reason  for  this  situation  is  that  the  critics 
see  the  party  from  opposite  viewpoints.  For  objective  histor- 
ical study,  this  cross-fire  criticism  is  distinctly  advantageous, 
for  each  critic  corrects  the  other. 

The  controversy  is  waged  most  hotly  on  the  question  whether 
the  Popular  Liberal  Party  is  a  genuinely  republican  and  liberal 
group,  or  merely  a  disguised  monarchist  and  ultraclerical  fac- 
tion. From  the  anticlerical  Republican  standpoint,  M.  Debidour 
in  his  scholarly  history  of  L'ftglise  catholique  et  I'etat  sous  la 
Troisieme  Republique  978  asserts  that  the  members  of  the  party 
were  4<  pious  noblemen  "  and  "  well-intentioned  bourgeois  "  who 
"  too  manifestly  preserved  their  royalist  —  and  at  the  same  time 
ultramontane  —  preferences."  Similarly,  Professor  Georges 
Weill,  in  his  Histoire  du  catholicisme  liberal  en  France?™  de- 
scribes the  members  of  the  party  as  either  "  republicans  by  sub- 
mission or  resigned  monarchists  "  (republicans  de  resignation 
ou  monarchistes  resignes}  and  seems  to  sympathize  with  the 
view  of  the  "  Catholics  of  the  Left,"  who  "  know  that  it  is 
simply  the  former  Conservative  Union,  reorganized  under  a 
new  title." 

M.  Leon  Jacques,  in  his  admirable  work  on  Les  Partis  poli- 
tiques  sous  la  IIP  Republique?™  devotes  six  pages  to  a  critique 
of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  and  expresses  the  same  convic- 
tion that  it  is  not  genuinely  republican  and  liberal,  that  it  is  too 
clerical.  A  genuine  republican  party,  he  argues,  would  not 


300  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

content  itself  with  recognizing  that  "  the  Republic  is  the  con- 
stitutional government  of  the  country  "  and  abstaining  from  all 
direct  or  indirect  action  against  the  Republic  while  asking  no 
one  to  renounce  his  own  person  preferences.  A  political  party, 
says  M.  Jacques,  requires  its  adherents  to  make  the  choice 
among  the  various  possible  forms  of  government  and,  by  reason 
of  this  sincere  and  definitive  choice,  demands  their  unreserved 
adherence  to  the  entire  program  of  the  party.  Because  it  fails 
to  take  so  strong  a  stand  either  in  favor  of  republicanism  as 
the  best  possible  form  of  government  or  in  favor  of  some 
other  constitution,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  in  the  opinion  of 
M.  Jacques,  cannot  be  considered  a  full-fledged  political  party ; 
it  is  only  "  a  powerful  party  organization,  the  organization  of 
a  party  which  is  striving  to  find  itself,  which  tries  to  constitute 
itself,  groping  its  way,  uncertain  of  its  elements  and  of  the  ter- 
rain on  which  it  is  to  fight."  M.  Jacques  suspects  that  the 
liberalism  of  the  party  is  only  contingent  and  provisional,  that 
it  is  only  a  matter  of  tactics.  Unwilling  to  take  the  party 
program  at  its  face  value,  he  insists  that  the  "  veritable  goal " 
of  the  party  is  obscure.  He  hints  that  some  of  its  members 
would  not  be  reluctant  to  profit  by  favorable  circumstances  to 
effect  a  coup  d'etat.  M.  Jacques  quotes  toasts  made  by  Major 
Driant  and  M.  L.  Millevoye  at  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  ban- 
quet, June  u,  1911.  M.  Millevoye  concluded  his  toast  with 
the  words,  "  we  engage  ourselves  here,  that  if  ever  the  day 
comes  —  and  it  is  not  so  far  distant  as  you  suppose  —  when 
you  and  I,  in  a  mutual  understanding,  in  a  common  fraternity, 
can  seize  [saisir],  can  take  possession  of  [emparer]  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  government  of  this  country,  well  then,  for  the 
sake  of  France  and  in  the  name  of  France  we  will  not  leave 
[office]."  981  To  construe  this  as  an  appeal  to  violence  requires 
disregarding  the  context  and  reading  a  very  great  deal  between 
the  lines.  Major  Driant's  speech  was  more  bellicose. 

I  do  not  fear  to  say  quite  openly  .  .  .  that  there  exists  in  Paris 
a  Military  League  determined  to  employ  itself  for  the  preservation 
[salut]  of  the  country,  should  the  occasion  arise.  .  .  .  The  day 
when  a  grave  crisis  breaks  out  in  Paris,  of  whatever  nature,  whether 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  301 

it  come  from  a  general  strike,  or  an  internal  crisis,  or  an  external 
crisis,  we  will  convoke  all  the  members  of  this  League  at  the 
Wagram  Hall, —  and  we  will  convoke  you  at  the  same  time.  And 
the  day  when  we  do  that,  you  will  say  to  yourselves  that  you  must 
come  in  large  numbers,  disciplined,  silent,  and  resolved.  From 
that  meeting  we  will  go  out  by  fours,  like  a  troop,  and  we  will  go 
on  that  day  wherever  the  genius  of  France  leads  us.  If  it  gives 
us  no  direction,  I  will  give  one :  to  begin  with,  it  will  be  to  the 
Grand-Orient  [Masonic  headquarters]. 

This  last  remark  was  greeted  with  salvos  of  applause.  An- 
other speaker  at  the  same  banquet,  M.  Chaligne,  raised  his  glass 
"  to  the  hope  of  seeing  our  liberal  republican  young  manhood 
combat,  even  by  force  if  necessary,  the  unjust  laws  decreed 
by  this  sectarian  government  and  Masonic  dictatorship  against 
the  freedom  of  education."  982  These  speeches  made  it  quite 
clear  that  certain  members  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  would 
be  inclined  to  resort  to  violence,  under  extreme  circumstances, 
for  the  defense  of  religious  liberty  or  to  save  the  nation  in  case 
of  foreign  menace ;  but  they  do  not  at  all  prove  the  existence  of 
any  ulterior  motives,  any  mental  reservations,  in  favor  of 
monarchism.  In  fact,  at  this  very  convention  of  1911,  the 
president  of  the  party  emphatically  declared,  "  Political  pro- 
gram, social  program,  religious  program,  economic  program, 
you  have  formulated  them  in  such  fashion  that  I  venture  to 
say  no  party  in  France  can  invoke  a  clearer  or  more  precise 
program.  If  tomorrow,  fortune,  to  speak  the  language  of  the 
secularists,  or  rather,  if  Providence,  as  I  would  say,  permitted 
that  the  collection  of  Jews  and  Free-Masons,  of  Liberal  Prot- 
estants, of  atheists  of  every  brand,  who  have  won  influence  in 
parliament,  and  inspire  the  legislation  there,  if  all  those  people 
were  overthrown  and  you  arrived  in  power,  you  would  have 
nothing  to  do  but  to  take  this  program,  which  has  been  drafted 
during  the  last  seven  years:  it  contains  everything."  And 
this  program,  be  it  remembered,  was  both  republican  and  demo- 
cratic. As  for  those  who  accused  the  party  of  having  no 
program,  M.  Piou  said,  they  "  simply  admit  that  they  have 
not  taken  the  trouble  to  read  it."  983 

Some  of   the   more   extreme   "  Christian   Democrats,"   who 


302  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

make  democracy  almost  an  article  of  faith,  agree  with  the 
anticlericals  in  accusing  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  of  insincere 
republicanism  and  of  sham  liberalism.  Abbe  Naudet,  for  ex- 
ample, complains  that  the  party  is  neither  popular  nor  liberal.984 
And  Abbe  Dabry,  another  ardently  democratic  priest  and  jour- 
nalist, bitterly  arraigns  the  party  on  the  same  grounds.  In 
his  more  or  less  autobiographical  book,  Les  Catholiques  repub- 
llcams,  written  in  1905,  Abbe  Dabry  sustains  the  charges  which 
he  made  in  1901  against  the  Piou  committee  out  of  which  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  developed.  The  charges  were: 

i.  That  the  committee  comprised,  as  members,  elements  strongly 
suspected  of  hostility  to  the  Republic;  2.  That  it  adopted  as  its  sole 
electoral  platform  religious  demands,  and  that  thus  it  presented 
itself  to  the  country  essentially  as  a  party  of  reaction.985 

"All  the  hypocritical  rallies  are  arrayed  under  his  [Piou's] 
banner,  to  combat  us,"  Abbe  Dabry  complains.988 

Abbe  Dabry  is  especially  emphatic  in  his  argument  that  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party,  far  from  being  a  liberal  political  party, 
is  merely  a  reactionary  faction,  which  attempts  to  unite  all 
Catholics  into  a  clerical  party.  Such  tactics,  he  holds,  are  con- 
trary to  the  desires  of  the  Holy  See  and  are  worse  than  inex- 
pedient. The  policy  of  Leo  XIII,  Abbe  Dabry  believes,  was  to 
induce  the  French  Catholics  to  abandon  their  isolation  and  to 
merge  with  the  Republican  parties.  He  writes : 

We  are  the  leaven  of  society,  and  we  must  be  also  the  leaven  of 
the  political  groups ;  to  be  that,  we  must  enter  into  all  of  them, 
excepting  those  which  from  different  points  of  view  are  opposed 
to  the  traditions  or  the  doctrines  of  the  Church,  as  are  the  royalists 
and  the  Socialists.  That,  to  my  mind,  is  why  the  exclusive  group- 
ing of  Catholics  under  any  [party]  name  whatsoever  is  an  error, 
and  why,  also,  supposing  the  Piou  group  were  to  disappear,  there 
would  be  no  interest  in  replacing  it  Quite  the  contrary !  987 

The  union  of  Catholics  for  religious  interests,  Abbe  Dabry 
holds,  is  thoroughly  commendable,  but  such  a  union  must  not 
enter  into  partisan  politics.  Solemnly  he  utters  the  warning: 

For  the  love  of  our  country  and  of  religion,  let  no  one  think  of 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  303 

demanding,  under  whatever  name  it  may  be  —  Catholic  party, 
Catholic  Republican  party,  Liberal  party, —  the  union  of  Catholics 
for  political  action !  Let  as  many  parties  be  founded  in  the  Re- 
public as  you  will,  but  let  it  be  with  a  political  and  not  with  a  con- 
fessional program ;  let  it  be  in  the  name  of  a  political  party  and 
not  at  all  in  the  name  of  religion.988 

The  result  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party's  insincere  republican- 
ism and  exclusive  clerical  policy,  according  to  Abbe  Dabry,  has 
been  nothing  short  of  disastrous. 

And  of  the  Liberal  Party  [Action  Liberate],  M.  Piou,  what  have 
been  the  results?  The  suppression  of  the  religious  orders,  the  as- 
sassination of  Christian  education,  the  denunciation  of  the  Con- 
cordat, Hell  risen  up  from  the  abyss  to  govern  us !  What 
trophies ! 989 

Curiously  enough,  another  journalist-priest,  Abbe  Em- 
manuel Barbier,  attacks  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  not  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  a  confessional  party,  or  that  it  is  insincere 
in  its  liberalism  and  republicanism,  but  precisely  for  the  contra- 
dictory reason  that  it  is  not  exclusively  Catholic  and  that  it  is 
genuinely  liberal  and  republican.  Abbe  Barbier,  in  fact,  as- 
serts that  M.  Piou  and  his  friends  insist  so  strongly  upon  repub- 
licanism that  "  it  has  become  impossible  to  remain  a  good 
Catholic  without  being  a  republican,  and  that,  after  all,  this 
qualification  of  republican  takes  precedence  over  that  of  Cath- 
olic." 

It  is  the  same  with  the  title  of  liberal.  M.  Piou  has  imposed  it 
in  such  a  manner  that  not  only  does  one  no  longer  dare  to  declare 
himself  a  liberal  candidate,  but  if  someone  —  and  I  am  reporting 
actual  facts  —  happens  to  say  to  the  electors :  we,  liberal  Catholics 
...  his  friends  rebuke  him  for  his  imprudence  in  not  calling  him- 
self just  simply  liberal.990 

Citing  various  actual  cases  in  which  the  Popular  Liberty  Party 
refused  to  support  Catholic  monarchist  candidates  against  re- 
publicans or  socialists,  Abbe  Barbier  bitterly  accuses  the  party 
of  not  being  even  Catholic.  Its  own  candidates,  he  asserts, 
"  declare  themselves  Democrats,  Frenchmen,  Patriots,  every- 


304  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

thing  except  Catholics."  991  In  another  place,  he  says,  "  The 
Liberal  Party  [Action  liberate]  ...  is  not  a  frankly  Catholic 
organization.  .  .  .  Contrary  to  its  raison  d'etre,  it  is  a  political 
organization ;  it  is  such  necessarily,  by  the  vice  of  its  origin." 

Indeed,  Abbe  Barbier  does  not  hesitate  to  assert  that  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  is  disobedient  to  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church.  To  be  sure,  the  leaders  of  the  party  had  received 
much  encouragement  from  Rome,  but  such  encouragement  was 
based  upon  a  misunderstanding  of  the  party's  policy.  Rome 
"  could  not "  show  favor  to  an  association  whose  program 
demanded  merely  liberty  and  equal  rights  for  the  church.  On 
the  contrary, 

The  (Popular)  Liberal  Party,  which  is  proposed  to  us  and 
which  imposes  itself  as  the  organized  embodiment  of  the  papal 
policy,  places  itself  thereby  in  manifest  contradiction  with  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Church  and,  above  all,  with  the  instructions  of  Leo 
XIII  in  the  Encyclical  from  which  the  Ralliement  [Catholic  ac- 
quiescence in  the  Republic]  was  born.992 

Abbe  Barbier  therefore  concluded  that,  as  far  as  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  is  concerned,  the  name,  the  program,  and  the 
policy  must  be  changed ;  "  the  rest  may  be  preserved,  if  one  so 
desires."  For,  "  the  name  is  equivocal,  the  program  is  false, 
the  policy  bad."  "3 

And  just  as  Abbe  Dabry  ascribes  all  the  reverses  of  the 
Catholics  in  France  since  1899  to  the  Popular  Liberal  Party's 
lack  of  sincere  liberalism  and  to  the  party's  exclusively  Catholic 
composition,  so  Abbe  Barbier  ascribes  the  same  reverses  to 
diametrically  opposite  causes,  namely,  the  fact  that  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  is  not  a  primarily  Catholic  party ;  and  that  it  is 
really  republican  and  liberal.  Abbe  Barbier  argues  that  the 
Republic  has  never  been  really  popular  with  the  people  "4 ; 
it  is  therefore  a  mistake  to  base  electoral  appeals  on  repub- 
licanism. He  illustrates  his  point  by  analyzing  the  elections 
of  1902  and  1906.  According  to  his  calculations,  the  "  mon- 
archist, Catholic,  and  independent "  and  other  clerical  candi- 
dates who  were  not  comprised  in  the  Popular  Liberal  Party, 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  305 

and  who  were  "  more  determined  in  political  opposition  as  well 
as  in  Catholic  defense,"  gained  333,555  votes  in  1906  above 
their  total  in  1902.  On  the  other  hand,  the  "  Liberals  "  [Popu- 
lar Liberal  Party]  lost  248,064;  the  "Nationalists,"  245,731; 
the  Progressists,  233, 58o.995  The  conclusion  is  implied  that  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  is  politically  inexpedient  for  the  Catholic 
cause. 

An  interesting  comparison  may  be  made  between  Abbe  Bar- 
bier's  figures  and  the  statistics  quoted  by  supporters  of  the 
party.  At  the  party  convention  of  1908,  a  report  was  read 
stating  that  the  strength  of  monarchism  had  steadily  declined 
since  1885.  The  total  number  of  votes  received  by  candidates 
declaring  themselves  monarchists  compared  with  the  number 
of  votes  received  by  republican  candidates  was: 

Year  Republican  Votes  Monarchist  Votes 

1876  4,028,153  3,202,333 

1877  4,367,202  2,577.882 
1881  5,128442  1,789,767 
1885  4,327,162  3,541,484 
1889  5,026,583  2,795,314 
1893  5,382,622  1,202,213 
1898  7,060,939  876,737 
1902  7,758,268  7H,998 
1906  7,842,221                                  610,925 

M.  Louis  Hosotte,  a  Catholic  historian  of  the  Third  Republic, 
gives  a  table  99(!  which  shows  the  same  striking  phenomenon, 
the  dwindling  away  of  monarchist  sentiment  in  politics.  The 
table  is  reproduced  here  in  abbreviated  form,  omitting  the 
figures  for  the  anticlerical  Republican,  Radical  and  Socialist 
parties,  and  adding  the  figures  for  1914  and  1919. 


National 
Assembly 
1871 

200  Orleanists 
200  Legitimists 
30  Bonapartists 

Chamber  of 
Deputies 
1876 

55  Orleanists 
25'  Legitimists 
75  Bonapartists 

306  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

1877  207   Conservatives    (*.  e.,  monarchists   of  various   fac- 

tions) 

1881  90  Conservatives 

1885  202  Conservatives 

1889  105  Royalists 

59  Bonapartists 
47  Boulangists 

1893  58  Conservatives 

35  Rallies  (Catholic  monarchists  who  had  become  Re- 
publicans) 

1898  44  Conservatives 

32  Rallies 

18  Nationalists  (mostly  clerical  and  republican) 

1902  41  Conservatives 

35  Rallies 
43  Nationalists 
132  Progressists  or  dissident  Radicals 

1906  78  Conservatives     or     Liberals     (evidently     including 

Popular  Liberal  Party) 
24  Nationalists 
79  Progressists 

1910  19  Conservatives 

34  Popular  Liberal  Party 
76  Progressists 

1914  32  Conservatives 

33  Popular  Liberal  Party 
50  Progressists 

1919  27  Conservatives 

3  Action  frangaise 
loo  Popular  Liberal  Party 
106  Progressists. 

The  table  is  obviously  incomplete  and  faulty.  Nevertheless, 
it  shows  clearly  enough  that  the  monarchist  parties  have  almost 
disappeared,  their  decline  being  very  marked  since  the  papal 
encyclical  of  1892,  and  that  the  Progressists  and  Popular  Liberal 
Party  are  the  only  remaining  solid  groups  friendly  to  the 
Church. 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  307 

The  same  conclusion  might  be  drawn  from  the  figures  given 
by  M.  Leon  Jacques,  a  Republican  unfriendly  to  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party,  and  by  the  Annuaire  du  Parlement,  although 
exact  statistics  are  quite  out  of  the  question  because  until  1910 
the  groups  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  overlapped  and  shaded 
into  one  another  in  a  most  bewildering  fashion.  The  only  fact 
that  is  really  clear  is  that  the  Monarchist  factions  have  almost 
entirely  disappeared  from  parliament,  whereas  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  and  the  Progressists  have  continued  to  receive 
a  very  large  number  of  Catholic  votes.  In  the  elections  of 
1914,  the  Progressists  polled  a  million  votes,  the  Popular  Lib- 
eral Party  three-quarters  of  a  million,  and  the  Right  (includ- 
ing the  monarchists)  only  345,ooo.997 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  sum  up  and  evaluate  the  con- 
tradictory criticisms  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  with  re- 
spect to  political  liberalism.  In  the  opinion  of  Republicans  and 
Christian  Democrats  the  supreme  defect  of  the  party  is  its 
failure  to  become  a  genuinely  liberal  Republican  party  rather 
than  an  exclusively  Catholic  party  of  uncertain  Republicanism. 
In  the  opinion  of  clerical  Monarchists,  the  supreme  fault  of  the 
party  is  its  insistence  upon  republicanism  and  liberalism,  its 
refusal  to  be  more  Catholic  than  liberal.  The  Christian  Demo- 
crats and  the  Monarchists  agree  —  but  for  contradictory  rea- 
sons —  in  blaming  the  party  for  Catholic  electoral  reverses. 

The  explanation  of  these  contradictions  seems  reasonably 
clear.  In  the  first  place,  the  charges  levelled  at  the  party  by 
Republicans  and  Christian  Democrats  are  true,  in  part.  The 
party  has  never  made  belief  in  republicanism  as  the  best  con- 
ceivable form  of  government  an  article  of  faith.  And  it  is 
Catholic  in  its  membership  and  in  its  policies.  Moreover,  many 
of  its  members  were  formerly  Monarchists.  The  party  insists 
on  acceptance  of  the  republic  merely  as  a  fait  accompli,  as  the 
constitution  desired  by  the  people,  not  as  an  abstract  ideal.  To 
Republican  enthusiasts,  this  coldness,  this  objectivity,  is  so 
exasperating  that  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  remains  suspect 
even  when  it  inscribes  at  the  head  of  its  "  Political  Program  " 
the  unequivocal  declaration, 


308  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

The  Republic  is  the  constitutional  government  of  the  country ;  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  recognizes  it,  and,  without  requiring  any  one 
to  renounce  or  abandon  his  inmost  preferences,  absolutely  forbids, 
by  its  very  statutes,  any  direct  or  indirect  action  against  the  Re- 
public.998 

That  the  party  accepts  the  Republic  passively,  there  can  be 
no  question.  The  party  convention  of  1908  unanimously  voted 
a  resolution  approving  "  recognition  of  the  Republic  as  the 
form  of  Government  accepted  by  the  country."  9"  And  in  the 
party's  official  bulletin  for  July  15,  1919,  the  following  declara- 
tion is  found: 

From  the  first  day,  the  A.  L.  P.  (Popular  Liberal  Party)  declared 

that  the  form  of  government  was  not  to  be  discussed.     Its  loyalty 
was  never  denied  for  an  instant.  .  .  . 

Today,  the  situation  is  clear.  The  Republic  has  held  the  flag  of 
France  during  four  years  and  carried  it  to  victory.  It  is  indis- 
putably the  national  government  of  France  entire,  crowned  by  the 
victory  of  right  and  the  admiration  of  the  whole  world.1000 

While  such  an  attitude  of  definitive  passive  acceptance  was  not 
enough  to  satisfy  Republican  critics,  it  was  too  much  to  suit 
Monarchist  critics.  It  meant  the  utter  abandonment  of  mon- 
archist political  agitation. 

In  short,  the  party  is  subjected  to  a  cross-fire  from  Monarch- 
ists and  extreme  Republicans,  not  because  its  own  policy  is 
ambiguous  or  paradoxical,  but  because  it  is  so  definitely  neutral, 
because  it  accepts  the  existing  Republic  without  expressing  any 
opinion  as  to  the  relative  merits  of  republicanism  and  monarch- 
ism  in  general.  Because  it  is  exposed  to  a  cross-fire,  such  a 
policy  is  perhaps  not  the  easiest  to  popularize.  But  whether 
the  party  would  have  gained  more  votes  by  swinging  to  one 
or  the  other  extreme,  is  a  question  which  partisans  answer  ac- 
cording to  their  individual  prejudices,  and  to  which  no  scientific 
answer  can  be  made. 

One  other  general  criticism  should  be  remarked.  M.  Leon 
Jacques  declares  that  the  economic  program  of  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  is  "  perhaps  a  little  theoretical  and  abstract." 
Continuing,  he  observes: 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  309 

The  mentality  of  the  workingmen  has  changed  since  Le  Play's 
time,  and,  besides,  a  number  of  the  workingmen  no  longer  practise 
any  religion.  Should  one  not  fear  that  they  would  feel  ill  at  ease 
in  [industrial]  organizations  more  or  less  directly  but  effectively 
inspired  by  the  Christian  ideal  of  gentleness,  of  hope  in  the  "  be- 
yond," and  of  resignation?1001 

Such  a  criticism  rests  upon  a  misconception  or  ignorance  of 
the  development  of  the  Social  Catholic  doctrine  since  Le  Play's 
time  and,  in  particular,  of  the  wide  gulf  that  separates  the  pro- 
gram of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  from  the  program  of  Le 
Play. 

In  the  first  place,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  derives  its 
economic  program  from  the  Social  Catholic  school,  rather  than 
from  the  School  of  Le  Play.  It  is  an  advocate  of  radical 
social  legislation  and  of  public  recognition  and  promotion  of 
trade  organization, — two  principles  upon  which  it  is  frankly 
at  variance  with  Le  Play's  doctrine.  Le  Play  was  essentially 
a  non-interventionist ;  the  party  is  conspicuously  interventionist. 

In  the  second  place,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  does  not  ask, 
as  M.  Jacques  implies  that  it  asks,  non-Christian  workingrrten  to 
belong  to  Christian  labor  organizations.  It  aims  to  foster 
Christian  trade  unions,  to  be  sure,  but  it  leaves  a  place  for 
non-Christian  unions.  It  plans  that  both  should  be  freely 
organized.  The  only  compulsory  organization  in  the  party's 
scheme  is  a  general  regional  organization  of  the  trades  for  the 
purposes  of  trade  representation  and  for  the  promotion  of 
trade  interests.  Into  such  an  organization  both  the  Christian 
and  non-Christian  trade  unions,  freely  and  voluntarily  consti- 
tuted, would  fit  as  subordinate  units.  Just  how  the  Christian 
ideal  of  hope  in  a  future  life  would  be  impressed  upon  such 
an  organization,  M.  Jacques  might  find  it  difficult  to  explain. 
But  as  concerns  the  Christian  ideal  of  "  gentleness,"  perhaps 
M.  Jacques  is  right ;  the  scheme  is  certainly  not  inspired  by  the 
ideal  of  class-conflict  and  industrial  warfare. 

In  the  third  place,  M.  Jacques  betrays  either  ignorance  or 
prejudice  when  he  asserts  that  the  economic  program  of  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  is  "  theoretical  and  abstract."  What- 


310  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

ever  may  be  its  faults  in  other  respects,  the  program  is  anything 
but  theoretical  or  abstract.  Its  most  striking  characteristic,  as 
any  one  familiar  with  the  program  can  hardly  fail  to  recognize, 
is  its  insistence  upon  practical,  specific  reforms  rather  than  upon 
vague  general  formulae  such  as  "  the  social  revolution,"  "  col- 
lective ownership,"  etc.  It  is  the  one  party  which  more  than 
any  other  has  consistently  declared  that  social  legislation  must 
deal  with  the  real  diversity  of  conditions  and  interests  actually 
existing  in  industry,  commerce,  and  agriculture,  and  that,  there- 
fore, all  such  legislation  should  be  adapted  to  local  and  special 
conditions  by  the  representatives  of  the  trades  and  regions  con- 
cerned. Events  have  increasingly  tended  to  demonstrate  the 
practical  character  of  the  program.  The  principle  that  repre- 
sentatives of  capital  and  labor  in  the  organized  trade  should 
have  at  least  a  consultative  voice  in  regard  to  industrial  legis- 
lation has  finally  triumphed,  after  long  opposition ;  it  was  the 
principle  upon  which  the  Government  proceeded  in  carrying 
through  the  eight-hour  day  law  of  iQig.1002  The  conception  of 
joint  industrial  boards,  representing  capital  and  labor,  is  one 
to  which  prominent  business  men  are  turning  as  to  the  only 
escape  from  an  impasse;  it  is  the  idea  which  the  British  Govern- 
ment adopted  in  its  reconstruction  program.  It  is  not  an 
entirely  idle  boast  which  the  Bulletin  of  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party  makes  when,  in  its  issue  of  July  15,  1919,  it  declares: 

The  social  program  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  is  not  dis- 
tinguished, as  is  well  known,  from  that  of  the  "  Social  Catholic 
School "  founded  by  Count  Albert  de  Mun.  For  this  reason  it  has 
sometimes  been  said  that  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  was  "  very  ad- 
vanced "  from  the  social  point  of  view. 

Eulogy  or  reproach  —  but,  as  for  ourselves,  we  have  always  con- 
sidered it  a  eulogy — the  statement  was  correct.  And  it  is  not  to- 
day, or  yesterday,  that  we  became  accustomed  to  occupying  a  posi- 
tion of  advanced  guard  in  social  matters. 

Our  oldest  readers  will  perhaps  recall  that  one  day,  a  score  of 
years  ago,  our  friend,  M.  de  Gailhard-Bancel,  expounded  from  the 
floor  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  some  of  our  social  principles  con- 
cerning the  organization  of  labor,  and  that  his  ideals,  much  too  novel 
in  that  assembly,  provoked  "  commotion "  [Mouvements  divers}  in 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  311 

certain  parts  of  the  house.  M.  Millerand.  visibly  interested,  in- 
terrupted to  say :  "  Those  are  ideas  of  the  future." 

In  the  mouth  of  this  experienced  politician,  always  well-posted 
on  social  questions,  this  was  a  profound  remark  of  great  signifi- 
cance. 

In  effect,  subsequent  experience  has  not  ceased  to  confirm  this 
forecast,  for  the  ideas  of  the  Social  Catholic  School  do  not  cease 
to  receive  from  events  and  from  time  the  most  brilliant  confirma- 
tions. 

Whether  it  is  a  question  of  the  legal  rights  of  trade  unions,  or  of 
the  weekly  holiday  —  which  we  in  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  more 
accurately  style  the  Sunday  holiday, —  whether  it  is  a  question  of 
workingmen's  pensions  or  of  mutual  aid,  of  collective  bargaining 
or  of  trade  jurisdictions, —  on  all  these  questions  and  on  many 
others,  besides,  the  Social  Catholic  School's  solutions  —  our  solu- 
tions —  have  ultimately,  little  by  little,  imposed  themselves,  and 
constitute  today  the  most  solid  and  beneficial  parts,  as  well  as  the 
most  practical  parts,  of  contemporary  social  legislation. 

But  it  is  interesting  to  signalize  as  a  particularly  solemn  and 
valuable  confirmation  of  one  of  the  most  important  principles  of 
this  doctrine  of  the  future,  that  which  has  been  received  at  the  hands 
of  the  Peace  Conference  and  which  is  inscribed,  with  incomparable 
authority,  in  the  Treaty  of  Versailles. 

We  have  the  right  to  assert,  not  without  pride,  that  the  first 
article  of  the  international  labor  legislation,  sanctioned  by  the 
signatures  of  the  Powers,  bears  witness  clearly  to  an  indisputably 
Catholic  idea  and  Catholic  initiative,  even  in  its  terminology,  and 
reproduces  the  formula  of  one  of  the  most  essential  revindications 
of  the  social  program  of  Leo  XIII  and  of  Count  Albert  de  Mun. 

Respectfully  we  quote  this  great  text: 

"  In  right  and  in  fact  the  labor  of  a  human  being  should  not  be 
treated  as  merchandise  or  an  article  of  commerce.  .  .  ." 1003 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  noted  again  that  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party  is  only  one  manifestation  of  and  not  the  inclusive  organ- 
ization of  the  Catholic  social  and  republican  movement  in 
France.  As  representative  of  the  Catholic  republican  move- 
ment, it  shares  Catholic  votes  with  the  Progressists  and  with 
other  Republican  groups.  As  representative  of  the  Social 
Catholic  movement  it  is  the  only  group  which  has  so  formally 
and  fully  accepted  the  Social  Catholic  program  of  social  legis- 
lation, but  there  are  numerous  deputies  outside  its  ranks  who 
advocate  the  same  program.  Moreover,  the  Social  Catholic 


312  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Movement  seems  unwilling  to  identify  itself  with  a  political 
party ;  it  prefers  to  work  by  means  of  non-partisan  social  propa- 
ganda rather  than  by  means  of  party  politics.  Its  influence, 
therefore,  may  be  regarded  as  a  broad  stream  in  which  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party  is  only  one  current. 

The  influence  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  is  difficult  to 
evaluate.  The  party  has  now  about  one  hundred  representa- 
tives in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  (some  of  these  members  sit  in 
the  Progressist  and  other  parliamentary  groups).  It  is,  there- 
fore, larger  at  present  than  the  Socialist  Party,  as  regards  par- 
liamentary representation.  But  the  influence  of  a  political 
party  is  not  always  to  be  calculated  by  simple  arithmetical 
processes. 

In  the  deliberations  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  it  has  played 
a  role  more  important  than  its  numbers  and  its  status  as  an 
Opposition  group  (prior  to  the  war)  would  warrant.  Espe- 
cially in  social  legislation,  in  the  question  of  proportional  repre- 
sentation, and  in  the  agitation  for  decentralization,  it  has  been 
very  conspicuous.  Its  ideas  have  had  more  telling  effect  than 
its  votes. 

Perhaps  the  party  would  have  exerted  a  still  stronger  influ- 
ence had  its  membership  been  more  homogeneous.  Its  mem- 
bers vary  from  enthusiastic  advocacy  to  passive  acceptance  in 
their  attitude  toward  democratic  government,  and  in  their  atti- 
tude toward  labor  problems  they  run  through  the  same  gamut. 
Moreover,  so  many  great  capitalists  and  aristocratic  land- 
owners are  included  in  the  party  that  workingmen  might  pos- 
sibly feel  inclined  to  suspect  the  sincerity  of  its  professed 
desire  for  "  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  the  workingmen." 
Indeed,  certain  of  the  deputies  belonging  to  the  parliamentary 
group  are,  if  not  insincere,  at  least  unenthusiastic,  in  their 
advocacy  of  the  social  legislation  demanded  by  the  party  plat- 
form. On  the  other  hand,  the  party  includes  too  many  peasants 
and  workingmen,  too  many  strenuous  champions  of  labor  in- 
terests, too  many  candid  critics  of  capitalism,  to  be  acceptable 
to  men  of  wealth  who  have  not  been  to  some  degree  affected 
by  the  Social  Catholic  reform  movement. 


THE  POPULAR  LIBERAL  PARTY  313 

In  other  words,  the  heterogeneity  of  the  party  militates 
against  success.  But  this  very  heterogeneity  makes  the  indirect 
influence  of  the  party  greater.  To  begin  with,  the  party  is 
genuinely  national,  it  represents  all  the  various  elements  of 
national  life  —  labor,  capital,  peasantry,  landed  aristocracy, 
liberal  professions,  shopkeepers,  the  army  and  navy,  the  intel- 
lectuals,—  and  it  represents  all  regions  of  France.  Such  a 
party,  in  attempting  to  solve  economic  problems,  must  neces- 
sarily act  as  an  instrument  of  class-conciliation;  it  must  seek 
solutions  which  will  be  acceptable  to  agriculture  and  commerce 
as  well  as  to  industry,  to  capital  as  well  as  to  labor,  to  the 
middle  and  professional  classes  as  well  as  to  laborers  and  em- 
ployers. Furthermore,  such  a  party  is  particularly  fitted  to 
break  down  the  traditional  resistance  of  the  upper  classes  to 
labor  legislation.  In  this  respect  the  Popular  Liberal  Party 
has  had  a  very  marked  effect.  It  has  been  exceedingly  influ- 
ential in  leading  aristocrats  and  bourgeois  to  take  an  active 
interest  in  social  questions  and  to  adopt  a  positive  and  con- 
structive program  of  social  legislation,  just  as  it  has  provided 
a  bridge  by  which  many  former  Monarchists  could  pass  over 
from  royalism  to  democratic  republicanism.  And  at  the  same 
time  it  has  accustomed  the  working-class  elements  which  it 
has  reached  to  regard  the  upper  classes  as  possible  allies  and 
friends,  rather  than  as  uncompromising  enemies.  Such  a  role 
of  social  conciliation,  when  coupled  with  a  very  advanced  pro- 
gram of  social  and  political  reforms,  is  undoubtedly  of  great 
though  imponderable  service  to  social  and  political  democracy. 

The  service  is  imponderable  because  it  is  a  service  of  propa- 
ganda and  of  influence  more  than  a  service  of  votes.  The 
Popular  Liberal  Party  is  even  more  an  association  for  propa- 
ganda than  a  political  group.  Herein  lies  its  most  solid  ele- 
ment of  strength.  Its  250,000  or  more  dues-paying  members; 
its  2,000  committees  scattered  through  the  length  and  breadth  of 
France ;  its  propagandist  literature ;  its  social  clubs,  its  affiliated 
organizations, —  all  these  give  it  an  influence  that  is  difficult  to 
measure. 

Should  the  party  realize  its  hope  of  forming  a  new  parlia- 


314  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

mentary  bloc  favorable  to  social  legislation,  to  democratic  con- 
stitutional reforms,  and  to  religious  liberty,  the  patient  work  of 
study  and  propaganda  might  suddenly  reach  the  stage  of 
fruition.  The  post-bellum  situation,  with  the  loyalty  and 
patriotism  of  the  party  vindicated,  with  social  problems  in  the 
foreground,  with  anticlericalism  temporarily  at  least  in  the 
background,  is  peculiarly  favorable  for  such  hopes.  But  even 
should  these  hopes  prove  illusory  as  regards  the  immediate 
future,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  would  still  have  its  major 
task  to  perform,  its  task  of  education  or  propaganda.  Said 
M.  Eugene  Flournoy,  in  his  book  defending  the  party,  the 
great  aim  is  to  train  a  working-class  elite,  inspired  with  the 
ideas  of  the  party.  To  train  an  elite  is  a  painfully  slow  process. 
But  it  is  a  process  which  oftentimes  leads  to  ultimate  success, 
and  which  always  leaves  its  impress  upon  the  spirit  of  the  age. 
The  task  of  the  sower  is  perhaps  more  important  than  that 
of  the  reaper.  There  are  always  parties  ready  to  gather  in 
the  harvest  when  the  ideas  have  been  popularized  and  have 
matured.  The  Popular  Liberal  Party  is  at  present  a  sower  of 
ideas;  who  reaps  the  harvest  is  of  little  importance,  for  the 
sower,  rather  than  the  reaper,  determines  the  nature  of  the 
crop. 


CHAPTER  X 

SURVEY  OF  THE  CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL 
CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT  IN  FRANCE 

GENERAL  SURVEY 

THE  contemporary  Social  Catholic  movement  in  France  is 
an  extraordinarily  complex  and  at  the  same  time  a  very  simple 
phenomenon :  complex  in  its  manifold  and  interrelated  organ- 
isms and  manifestations ;  simple  in  its  doctrines  and  impulse. 

Its  external  manifestations  embrace  a  whole  congeries  of 
social  and  political  associations  and  of  social-service  institu- 
tions. In  politics,  it  is  more  or  less  faithfully,  but  not  entirely 
or  exclusively,  represented  by  the  Action  Liberate  Populaire  or 
Popular  Liberal  Party,  an  association  exceptionally  well  de- 
veloped in  its  constitution  and  program,  relatively  weak  in  its 
parliamentary  representation,  relatively  strong  in  its  dues-pay- 
ing membership.  In  the  non-partisan  sphere  of  social  research 
and  propaganda,  it  is  represented  by  the  extraordinarily  active 
Action  Populaire  of  Rheims,  by  the  "  Social  Catholic  Study 
Union,"  by  important  national  congresses  (Semaines  so  dales) 
held  every  year  for  the  discussion  of  social  and  economic  prob- 
lems, and  by  local  conferences  and  conventions,  held  more  fre- 
quently, for  the  same  purpose.  In  the  press,  it  is  represented 
by  a  serious  monthly  review,  Le  Mouvement  social  —  a  veri- 
table mine  of  information  on  social  developments  and  social 
studies  the  world  over, —  by  an  important  fortnightly  review, 
Le  Correspondant,  by  many  other  periodical  publications  which 
appeal  less  to  the  learned  world  than  to  the  people,  by  the 
Annee  sociale  Internationale,  which  is  probably  the  most  com- 
prehensive and  pretentious  international  year-book  on  social  and 
labor  questions,  by  series  of  pamphlets,  by  innumerable  books 
concerning  the  detailed  specific  applications  as  well  as  the  fun- 

3iS 


316  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

damental  principles  of  social  theory.1004  Among  the  working- 
men,  it  has  formed  "  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs,"  Catholic 
trade  unions  and  industrial  federations ;  among  the  employers 
it  has  formed  parallel  organizations ;  among  the  consumers  it 
has  organized  a  Social  League  of  Consumers  (Ligue  sociale 
d'acheteurs}  with  twenty-eight  local  sections.  Among  the 
young  men  its  influence  is  disseminated  by  the  French  Young 
Men's  Catholic  Association  (the  A.  C.  J.  F.  or  Association 
Catholique  de  la  Jeunesse  Frangaise),  an  offshoot  of  Count 
Albert  de  Mun's  Workingmen's  Clubs.  It  maintains  people's 
secretariats,  Workingmen's  garden  associations,  social  informa- 
tion bureaus,  mutual  aid  and  insurance  societies.1005  These  are 
a  few  of  the  manifestations  of  the  movement.  The  works  of 
private  charity  conducted  by  the  Society  of  Saint  Vincent  de 
Paul  and  by  the  clergy  are  not  touched  on  here,  because  they 
aim  not  so  much  at  reform  of  the  social  order  as  at  relief  of  the 
wretchedness  incident  to  that  order. 

Complex  as  it  may  be  in  its  organs  of  action,  the  movement 
is  simple  enough  in  its  fundamental  principles.  The  impulse 
in  back  of  all  the  above-mentioned  enterprises  arises  from  the 
conviction  that,  in  the  first  place,  neither  the  labor  problem  nor 
the  social  questions  of  the  day  can  be  solved  except  in  harmony 
with  the  doctrines  of  justice,  charity,  and  the  dignity  of  man,1006 
doctrines  inculcated  by  the  Christian  Church,  and,  in  the  second 
place,  that  for  individual  Christians  it  is  an  urgent  duty  —  a 
duty  enjoined  by  charity  and  by  justice  as  well  as  by  the  neces- 
sity of  removing  the  grievances  which  give  revolutionary  so- 
cialism its  strength  —  to  engage  actively  in  social  service.  In  a 
most  general  way,  the  characteristic  features  of  the  Social  Cath- 
olic doctrine  are :( I ) recognition  that  the  existing  organization  of 
industry,  involving  as  it  ofttimes  does  the  inhumane  exploitation 
of  human  labor,  stands  in  need  of  reform;  (2)  insistence  that 
such  reform,  to  be  beneficial,  must  be  in  harmony  with  Chris- 
tian principles,  and  that  Christians  should  take  an  active  part 
in  it;  (3)  opposition  to  revolutionary  socialism  and  revolution- 
ary syndicalism,  on  one  hand,  and  to  the  individualistic,  non- 
interventionist  teachings  of  the  classical  or  Liberal  economists 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       317 

on  the  other  hand;  (4)  acceptance  of  Pope  Leo  Kill's  encycli- 
cal letter  "  On  the  Condition  of  the  Working  Classes  "  (1891), 
together  with  subsequent  papal  encyclicals  on  the  same  subject, 
as  the  platform  of  the  Catholic  movement  for  social  reform; 
(5)  assertion  that  .the  conditions  of  labor  should  be  such  that 
the  workingman  may  be  able  to  enjoy  needful  leisure  and 
repose,  that  he  may  observe  Sunday  as  a  holiday,  that  his  wife 
and  children  may  not  be  swallowed  up  by  the  factory,  that  he 
may  obtain  a  wage  sufficient  to  maintain  a  decent  home,  sup- 
port his  family  and  provide  against  accident,  sickness,  unem- 
ployment, and  old  age;  (6)  advocacy  of  social  legislation, 
national  and  international,  to  assist  in  realizing  such  conditions 
and  to  develop  institutions  which  will  ultimately  relieve  the 
state,  to  a  large  extent,  of  all  except  a  general  supervision  of 
such  conditions;  (7)  great  emphasis  on  a  modernized  guild 
organization  of  industry,  that  is,  the  encouragement  of  trade 
unions  and  the  formation  of  joint  boards  of  capital  and  labor, 
for  the  purpose  of  protecting  the  rights  of  labor,  of  settling 
industrial  disputes  amicably,  of  regulating  wages,  hours  of  labor 
and  industrial  conditions,  of  conducting  social  insurance,  of 
maintaining  vocational  training,  of  increasing  pride  of  trade, 
skill  of  work,  and  intensity  of  production, —  in  short,  of  solving 
the  labor  problem  without  recourse  to  state  socialism  or  social 
revolution;  (8)  defense  of  the  right  of  property,  coupled  with 
a  desire  to  generalize  the  enjoyment  of  this  right  by  increasing 
the  number  of  small  holdings  and  by  fostering  thrift;  (9) 
championship  of  small  holdings  and  agricultural  cooperation 
as  the  twin  principles  of  agrarian  reform;  (10)  favorable  atti- 
tude towards  divers  schemes  of  cooperative  production,  profit- 
sharing,  and  co-partnership  which,  although  often  admitted  to 
be  inapplicable  to  large  industries,  tend  to  bridge  the  chasm  be- 
tween capital  and  labor,  and  to  improve  conditions  at  least  on  a 
small  scale. 

Through  the  whole  program  of  the  Social  Catholics  there 
runs  the  thought  of  reconciling  liberty  with  authority,  of  avoid- 
ing both  the  laissez-faire  regime,  in  which  the  individual  is 
everything,  and  the  socialist  regime,  in  which  the  state  is  every- 


318  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

thing,  and  of  building  up  a  regime  in  which  modernized  guilds 
will  act  as  buffers  between  the  state  and  the  individual,  a  regime 
in  which  the  perils  of  unmitigated  individualism  and  of  social- 
ism will  alike  be  obviated,  while  the  liberty  of  the  individual 
and  the  interest  of  the  group  will  both  be  secured  in  just 
measure.  It  is  an  attempt  to  find  a  new  point  of  view  from 
which  the  two  greatest  politico-social  ideas  of  the  modern  age, 
individualism  and  collectivism,  will  be  seen  as  exaggerations  of 
complementary  verities  rather  than  as  merely  mutually  contra- 
dictory conceptions. 

The  essential  unity  of  the  contemporary  French  Social 
Catholic  movement  is  a  matter  of  historical  development  as  well 
as  of  doctrine.  Perhaps  a  bird's-eye  review  of  the  rise  of  the 
movement  will  enforce  this  statement. 

The  origins  of  the  movement  may  be  traced  back,  as  the  early 
chapters  of  this  book  attempt  to  demonstrate,  to  the  unorgan- 
ized and  more  or  less  sporadic  protests  of  Catholic  intellectuals 
in  the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  protests  against  the 
so-called  "  liberal "  or  orthodox  school  of  political  economy, 
which  made  labor  a  mere  merchandise,  to  be  bought  as  cheaply 
as  possible,  and  forbade  the  state  to  protect  the  workingman, 
protests  also  against  the  destruction  of  the  guilds  and  the  inter- 
diction of  all  industrial  combinations  or  labor  unions  by  the 
French  Revolution.  With  Lacordaire  and  Ozanam  these  pro- 
tests were  perhaps  most  eloquent ;  with  Villeneuve-Bargemont 
they  were  the  inspiration  of  a  serious  attempt  to  rewrite  polit- 
ical economy  from  a  Christian  and  social,  as  contrasted  with  a 
non-Christian  and  individualistic,  point  of  view. 

Under  the  Second  Empire  the  movement  to  create  a  Christian 
social  economy  gained  headway,  under  the  leadership  of  Le 
Play  and  Perin.  But  under  the  leadership  of  these  sociologists, 
the  movement  was  given  a  less  practical,  though  more  scientific 
direction. 

With  the  Third  Republic,  the  organized  movement  begins  to 
take  form.  It  is  in  a  very  real  sense  the  child  of  the  past;  it 
inherits  its  ideas,  and  particularly  the  idea  that  Christian  social 
economy  is  the  true  solvent  of  social  problems  and  the  true 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       319 

corrective  of  social  errors,  such  as  individualism  and  socialism, 
from  Perin  and  Le  Play ;  and  the  maxims  of  Ozanam  and  La- 
cordaire  are  on  its  lips.  But  it  shows  a  more  practical  spirit, 
partly  because  it  is  organized  for  practical  purposes,  and  partly 
because  it  has  found  in  Germany  a  mtodel  for  emulation. 

The  beginning  of  the  organized  movement  is  the  Association 
of  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs,  created  by  the  zeal  of  Count 
Albert  de  Mun  and  Marquis  de  La  Tour  du  Pin,  in  1871,  with 
the  object  of  disseminating  Catholic  ideas  and  combating  so- 
cialism among  the  workingmen,  of  fostering  a  spirit  of  social 
service  among  the  upper  classes,  and  of  reviving  the  ideal  of 
the  Christian  guild.  The  guild  conception  was  tremendously 
strengthened  when  the  Association  in  1873  found  an  ally  in 
Leon  Harmel,  a  Catholic  manufacturer,  who  had  actually 
formed  something  resembling  a  guild  in  his  own  factory.  As 
the  Association  expanded,  more  rapidly  perhaps  than  its  found- 
ers had  dared  hope,  the  need  of  a  well-defined  social-economic 
doctrine  became  increasingly  apparent.  Consequently,  the  en- 
terprise which  at  the  outset  had  been  merely  an  organization  for 
practical  social  work,  disclaiming  any  desire  to  become  a  new 
"  school  "of  economic  thought,  in  opposition  to  the  schools  of 
Le  Play  and  Perin,  gradually  developed  a  doctrine  distinct 
from,  even  opposed  to,  that  of  the  followers  of  Le  Play  and 
Perin.  Out  of  the  Association  of  Catholic  Workingmen's 
Clubs  grew  the  so-called  "  Social  Catholic  School "  of  sociology 
and  economics. 

The  Council  of  Studies  formed  by  the  Association  in  1872 
was  the  nucleus  around  which  clustered  a  group  of  Social 
Catholic  writers.  The  monthly  review,  L 'Association  catho- 
liquc,  founded  in  1876,  served  as  their  organ.  Strive  as  they 
might  to  remain  eclectic  and  to  conciliate  the  older  schools,  the 
new  group  found  itself  irresistibly  impelled,  by  the  stimulus  of 
popular  propaganda,  by  the  influence  of  German  and  Austrian 
Social  Catholicism,  and  by  de  Mun's  entry  into  politics  as  its 
spokesman,  to  adopt  a  more  and  more  advanced  social  pro- 
gram, a  more  and  more  distinctive  social  viewpoint.  As  fric- 
tion with  the  older  and  more  conservative  schools  increased,  it 


320  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

became  necessary  to  divorce  the  review  from  the  Association  in 
1891,  to  the  end  that  the  former  might  be  freer  and  the  latter 
less  embarrassed  by  doctrinal  controversies. 

About  the  same  time,  in  May,  1891,  appeared  the  papal 
encyclical  on  the  Condition  of  the  Working  Classes.  This  pro- 
nouncement from  Rome  immensely  encouraged  and  stimu- 
lated the  nascent  Social  Catholic  school.  The  Association, 
which  had  lost  its  initial  impetus,  gained  new  life.  The  Asso- 
ciation catholique  became  more  aggressive.  Hope  was  stimu- 
lated that  the  whole  body  of  Catholic  thought  might  be  won 
over,  that  the  rival  schools  of  Catholic  sociology  might  be 
brought  together. 

In  1896  the  editors  of  L' Association  catholique  took  the 
initiative  in  establishing  periodical  conferences  of  the  directors 
of  Catholic  reviews  dealing  with  social  questions.  Through 
these  Reunions  frangaises  des  Revues  catholiques  sociales,  as 
they  were  called,  the  influence  of  L' Association  catholique  was 
widely  extended.1007  Moreover,  out  of  the  Reunions  grew  the 
Social  Catholic  Study  Union  or  Union  d 'etudes  des  catholiques 
sociaux,  in  1901-1902,  an  organization  under  the  chairmanship 
of  Henri  Lorin,  one  of  the  group  that  had  grown  up  around 
the  Council  of  Studies  of  the  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs.1008 
Out  of  the  Study  Union,  in  turn,  grew  the  Semaines  sociales, 
the  great  annual  congresses,  beginning  in  1904,  in  which  the 
leading  French  exponents  of  Social  Catholicism  come  together 
for  the  discussion  of  social  questions.1009 

Probably  the  most  conspicuous  organizations  at  present 
carrying  forward  the  Social  Catholic  movement  in  France  are 
the  Semaines  sociales  and  the  Action  populaire,  the  Association 
Catholique  de  la  Jeunesse  Frangaise,  and  the  Action  Liberale 
Populaire  or  Popular  Liberal  Party.  How  the  Semaines  so- 
ciales resulted,  indirectly,  from  the  Association  of  Catholic 
Workingmen's  Clubs  has  just  been  explained.  The  Popular 
Liberal  Party,  as  was  shown  in  the  foregoing  chapter,  took  the 
presiding  genius  of  the  Workingmen's  Clubs,  Count  Albert  de 
Mun,  as  vice-president,  and  borrowed  its  social  program.  The 
Association  Catholique  de  la  Jeunesse  Pranqaise,  originating  in 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       321 

1886  as  an  offshoot  of  the  Workingmen's  Clubs,  was  fostered  by 
Count  Albert  de  Mun,  and  consistently  maintained  the  closest 
relationship  with  the  parent  association  as  well  as  with  the  or- 
ganizers of  the  S emetines  sociales  and  with  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party.  In  fact,  a  sort  of  interlocking  directorate  of  leaders 
is  very  noticeable  in  these  three  organizations.1010  Finally,  the 
Action  populaire,  founded  at  Rheims  in  1903,  as  a  general  cen- 
tral bureau  of  propaganda  and  information,  inherited  not  only 
the  doctrines  of  the  Social  Catholic  school,  but,  in  1909,  took 
over  the  monthly  review,  U  Association  catholique,  which  was 
now  rechristened  Le  Monvement  social.  The  Action  Populaire, 
it  may  be  added,  is,  like  the  A.  C.  J.  F.,  on  terms  of  closest  inti- 
macy with  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  the  Association  of  Cath- 
olic Workingmen's  Clubs,  and  the  Semaines  sociales.  In  short, 
all  four  enterprises  are  overlapping  in  membership,  harmonious 
in  doctrine,  and  kindred  heirs  of  a  comrrion  legacy. 

With  the  many  less  conspicuous  or  subsidiary  organizations 
which  help  to  make  up  the  contemporary  Social  Catholic  Move- 
ment in  France,  it  is  impossible  to  deal  in  this  preliminary  sur- 
vey. Some  of  them  will  receive  passing  attention,  in  the  follow- 
ing sections,  others  will  be  totally  ignored,  else  the  narrative 
would  become  too  involved. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  the  following  sections  to  give  some  idea 
of  the  nature  and  aims  of  those  branches  of  the  contemporary 
Social  Catholic  movement  which  have  been  neglected  thus  far. 
Regarding  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  which  was  described  in 
the  preceding  chapter,  and  the  Association  of  Catholic  Work- 
ingmen's Clubs,  which  was  dealt  with  in  Chapter  III,  nothing 
more  need  be  added. 

THE  ACTION  POPULAIRE  AND  ITS  PUBLICATIONS 

The  Action  Populaire  1011  owed  its  inception  to  Abbe  Leroy, 
a  young  French  priest  who  was  then  engaged  in  work  among 
the  people,  and  who  had  conceived  the  idea  of  founding  a  sort 
of  Volksverein  in  France.  The  German  Volksverein,  or  Peo- 
ple's Union,  which  served  as  a  model  for  the  enterprise,  was  a 
powerful  Catholic  association  (embracing  more  than  three- 


322  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

quarters  of  a  million  members  in  1913)  ;  and  at  the  same  time 
it  served  as  a  social  secretariat  and  propaganda  bureau,  printing 
and  distributing  Social  Catholic  literature,  and  organizing  study- 
courses  and  conferences  on  social  questions.  In  the  year  1912- 
1913,  for  example,  the  Volksverein  organized  3,427  meetings 
and  distributed  851,145  books  and  brochures  and  more  than 
11,000,00  leaflets,  tracts,  and  journals.1012  Abbe  Leroy's  idea 
was  to  imitate  the  Volksverein  as  a  social  secretariat  and  propa- 
ganda bureau,  not  as  a  popular  association ;  perhaps  he  did  not 
consider  the  time  ripe  for  the  latter,  in  France.  The  Action 
Populaire  was  to  serve  as  an  information  bureau;  it  was  to 
build  up  a  great  social  library  comprising  contributions  from 
Catholic  sociologists  and  experts,  both  lay  and  clerical,  and  it 
hoped  to  publish,  for  popular  distribution,  a  great  series  of 
thirty-page  pamphlets. 

Because  the  financial  support  was  wanting,  the  beginnings 
of  the  enterprise  were  modest,  even  humble.  At  first,  a  few 
secretaries  and  editors  housed  in  a  kitchen  and  a  shed  at  Rheims 
constituted  the  Action  Populaire.  Gradually  it  expanded.  A 
quaint  eighteenth-century  hotel,  the  Institut  Maintenon,  5  Rue 
des  Trois-Raisinets,  in  the  shadow  of  the  great  Rheims  cathe- 
dral, was  taken  over  as  headquarters.  By  1912,  the  central 
office  employed  sixteen  editors  —  ten  priests  and  six  laymen  — 
besides  twenty-seven  secretaries;  ten  persons  were  kept  busy 
sending  out  the  mass  of  literature  which  was  daily  dispatched 
from  the  bureau ;  several  travelling  secretaries  were  engaged  in 
visiting  libraries  and  booksellers  in  the  interest  of  the  organiza- 
tion; it  had  several  hundred  collaborators  and  correspondents 
in  France  and  abroad;  and  in  its  admirable  library  some  400 
French  and  foreign  reviews,  besides  a  remarkable  collection  of 
social  and  economic  treatises  and  official  documents,  were  on 
file.  It  became,  in  the  words  of  a  prominent  Social  Catholic, 
"  a  sort  of  permanent  bureau  of  Social  Catholicism."  1013 

From  the  outset,  the  Action  Populaire  regularly  published  a 
series  of  five-cent  yellow  pamphlets,  three  a  month,  each  about 
thirty  pages  in  length.  This  pamphlet  series  attained  a  circu- 
lation of  about  three  thousand  within  a  year  or  two  and  is  very 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       323 

widely  known.  It  now  comprises  over  three  hundred  mono- 
graphs on  social  questions,  monographs  contributed  by  the  fore- 
most French  Social  Catholic  writers,  by  foreign  social  Catholics, 
and  by  non-Catholic  economists.  Old-age  pensions,  mutual  aid, 
cooperative  associations,  labor  unions,  mixed  industrial  boards, 
housing  problems,  strikes,  representation  of  trades,  employ- 
ment service,  apprenticeship  and  vocational  training,  child-labor, 
workingmen's  gardens,  education,  accident  compensation,  con- 
sumers' leagues,  the  C.  G.  T.,  socialism,  factory  inspection, 
income  taxes,  alcoholism, —  such  are  the  subjects  treated. 

In  addition  to  these  yellow  pamphlets,  the  Action  Populaire 
subsequently  inaugurated  other  series.  A  series  called  Les 
Actes  Sociau.v  made  the  principal  laws,  papal  pronouncements, 
and  other  documents  on  social  matters  available  at  five  cents 
each.  Another  series,  Les  Plans  et  Documents,  comprised 
documentary  and  doctrinal  monographs,  designed  for  social 
study  clubs.  A  third,  Les  Tracts  Populaires,  consisted  of  mere 
leaflets.  A  fourth,  Les  Feuilles  Sociales,  was  made  up  of  brief 
summaries,  in  the  form  of  questions  and  answers,  of  various 
longer  pamphets,  and  was  destined  for  popular  propaganda. 

Besides  the  pamphlets  and  leaflets,  the  Action  Populaire 
published  several  series  of  manuals  and  annuals.  The  earliest 
of  these  was  the  Guide  social,  published  annually  since  1904,  a 
volume  of  about  four  hundred  pages.  This  is  a  serious  and 
well-documented  annual  survey  of  the  various  aspects  of  the 
social  problem,  a  survey  which  aims  rather  to  give  accurately 
the  latest  information,  statistics,  and  bibliographical  data  than 
to  set  forth  doctrines  or  dogmas.  The  latest  issue,1014  for  ex- 
ample, opens  with  a  calendar  of  parliamentary  debates,  laws, 
decrees,  and  ordinances  on  social  matters.  There  follows  a 
collection  of  recent  papal  documents  on  social  questions,  with 
a  brief  description  of  the  principal  agencies  and  the  difficulties 
of  Catholic  social  action.  This  by  way  of  introduction.  Part 
One  of  the  volume  analyzes  the  census  of  1911,  quotes  the 
leading  opinions  on  the  problem  of  the  declining  birth-rate,  and 
on  possible  remedies,  and  provides  a  seven-page  bibliography 
of  official  documents,  books,  and  articles  on  the  subject ;  there 


324  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

follow  statistical  and  documentary  studies  of  the  housing  prob- 
lem, and  of  hygiene,  with  bibliographies.  Part  Two  deals 
with  trade-unionism,  syndicalism,  labor  organization,  employ- 
ers' unions,  and  the  cooperative  movement,  giving  statistics, 
quoting  opinions,  and  providing  bibliographies.  Part  Three  is 
devoted  to  labor  legislation ;  Part  Four  to  Accident  Insurance, 
Workingmen's  Pensions,  and  Mutual  Insurance.  The  Guide 
social,  said  the  preface  to  the  edition  of  1911,  "  aims  to  repro- 
duce, as  on  a  moving-picture  film,  the  living  and  moving  image 
of  realities  in  perpetual  motion."  1015 

The  Guide  social  proved  so  useful  and  so  popular, —  within 
a  year  or  two  its  circulation  had  reached  six  thousand, — that 
the  Action  Populaire  in  1910  resolved,  while  continuing  it, 
to  prepare  also  a  much  larger  and  more  pretentious  annual  on 
the  same  general  model.  The  Annee  sociale  Internationale  for 
1910,  a  volume  of  978  pages,  was  followed  by  the  Annee  sociale 
Internationale  for  1911,  for  1912,  for  1913-1914,  the  last  issue 
being  a  ponderous  tome  of  1256  pages.  The  Annee  has  become 
a  truly  monumental  work.  Though  it  is  very  frankly  a  Catholic 
publication,  its  range  and  accuracy  of  information  make  it  an 
invaluable  handbook  and  bibliographical  guide  for  any  student 
of  social  problems,  of  labor  problems  particularly.  Primarily 
French,  and  Catholic,  it  is  nevertheless  genuinely  comprehen- 
sive and  international.  Turning  to  the  section  on  trade-union- 
ism, for  example,  one  finds  not  merely  a  survey  of  Catholic 
trade-unions  in  France,  but  also  a  much  longer  account  of  the 
revolutionary  Syndicalist  trade  unions  and  of  the  C.  G.  T.,  with 
copious  quotations  from  Syndicalist  writers,  reports  of  the  C. 
G.  T.  officials,  and  a  review  of  the  C.  G.  T.  congress  of  1912 
at  Havre;  there  follow  sections  on  trade-unionism  in  all  coun- 
tries,—  on  the  Christian  trade  unions  and  the  Socialist  unions 
alike, —  the  most  recent  available  statistics  being  given  under 
each  country  together  with  a  brief  statement  of  recent  tenden- 
cies and  developments;  then  one  finds  an  account  of  the  vari- 
ous Socialist,  Christian,  and  neutral  international  trade-union 
organizations;  a  special  section  is  devoted  to  feminine  trade- 
unionism,  another  to  a  statistical  summary  of  the  strength  of 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       325 

organized  labor  in  all  countries,  a  third  to  a  survey  of  strikes 
in  all  countries  and  of  recent  legislation. 
It  is  the  boast  of  the  Action  Populaire  that, 

Nowhere  does  there  exist,  even  in  Germany,  where  social  writers 
are  legion,  any  publication  even  remotely  resembling  the  Annee 
sociale.  It  was  established  to  fill  a  gap :  its  success  is  witness  to  a 
need,  a  universal  need  we  venture  to  say,  for  from  all  countries, 
even  from  the  most  distant,  the  Action  Populaire  receives  demands 
for  the  Annee  sociale.1016 

But  the  Annee  is  not  designed  uniquely  as  an  international 
work  of  reference.  "  It  is  above  all  a  breviary  of  action ;  each 
of  its  pages  urges  the  reader  to  act."  101T  In  this  sense,  it 
provides  the  historian  of  the  French  Social  Catholic  movement 
with  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the  fields  in  which  that  move- 
ment is  active,  of  the  directions  in  which  it  endeavors  to  make 
its  influence  felt.  In  the  first  place  comes  the  work  of  social 
propaganda,  education,  and  research,  a  work  in  which  the 
Catholic  Employers  Association  of  Northern  France,  the  Work- 
ingmen's  Clubs,  the  Fraternal  Union  of  Commerce  and  Industry, 
Study  Clubs,  the  Action  Populaire  itself,  social  secretariats, 
social  libraries,  national  and  local  congresses,  and  the  Social 
League  of  Consumers,  appear  as  the  active  organizations. 

Part  One  groups  under  the  general  rubric  of  "  The  Fam- 
ily," a  series  of  reforms  in  which  the  Social  Catholics  interest 
themselves.  They  are  alarmed  by  the  low  birth-rate,  which 
means  a  stationary  or  declining  population  in  France,  and  they 
would  combat  the  evil  by  opposing  religion  to  neo-malthusian- 
ism.  They  would  provide  cheap  and  salubrious  dwellings  for 
the  poor,  and  are  interested  in  legislation  with  this  object. 
They  have  already  made  much  progress  in  giving  working- 
men  the  use  of  garden  plots.  They  desire  legislation  designed 
to  aid  each  family  to  acquire  and  hold  securely  a  small  prop- 
erty or  a  house.  They  support  the  campaign  against  unsani- 
tary conditions,  infant  mortality,  contagious  diseases,  tuber- 
culosis, adulterated  foods,  alcoholism,  obscenity  and  por- 
nography, criminality.  They  would  reduce  the  high  cost  of 


326  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

living,  encourage  saving,  promote  domestic  training,  reform 
divorce  legislation  so  as  to  stabilize  the  family,  repress  the 
white-slave  traffic. 

Part  Two  deals  with  *'  Producers  and  Consumers."  A 
paragraph  summary  of  interests  of  the  Social  Catholics  in  this 
field  is  almost  impossible.  Legislation  favorable  to  trade 
unions  is  to  be  enacted,  Catholic  labor  unions  and  employers' 
unions  are  to  be  promoted,  joint  industrial  boards  are  to  be 
created,  arbitration  and  conciliation  are  to  be  substituted  for 
strikes  and  lockouts,  farmers'  unions  are  to  be  developed,  trade 
organizations  are  to  build  up  systems  of  vocational  training 
and  employment  bureaus,  cooperative  societies  are  to  be  en- 
couraged, financial  speculation  is  to  be  controlled. 

Part  Three  takes  up  the  relations  between  "  The  State  and 
the  Workingmen."  Here  the  Social  Catholics  are  interested 
first  of  all  in  immediate  labor  legislation,  secondly,  in  effective 
factory  inspection,  thirdly,  in  the  transfer  of  industrial  regu- 
lation to  trade  organizations,  and  finally,  in  the  international- 
ization of  labor  laws.  The  fields  of  state  action  with  which 
the  Annee  deals  are  hygiene  and  security,  limitation  of  the 
working  day,  night-work,  holidays  and  vacations,  employment 
of  women  and  children,  protection  and  fixation  of  wages,  civil- 
service  reform. 

Part  Four  gives  a  survey  of  socialism  and  anarchism,  two 
movements  which  the  social  Catholics  combat  as  dangerous  er- 
rors. 

Finally,  Part  Five  deals  with  social  insurance  and  mutual 
aid.  Ever  desirous  of  promoting  mutual  aid  societies,  espe- 
cially in  connection  with  trade  organizations  and  trade  unions, 
the  Social  Catholics  are  in  general  hostile  to  the  exclusive  man- 
agement of  old-age  pensions,  accident  insurance,  sickness  in- 
surance, and  unemployment  insurance  by  the  state.  Their 
desire  is,  rather,  that  these  social  insurances  should  be  made 
compulsory  by  the  state  but  actually  conducted  by  private  mu- 
tual aid  societies  and  by  trade  unions. 

A  third  manual  published  by  the  Action  Populaire,  beginning 
in  1910,  was  designed  as  a  practical  handbook  for  those  who 


327 

wished  to  found  or  were  engaged  in  directing  social  service 
institutions  such  as  labor  unions,  employers'  unions,  coopera- 
tive societies  of  credit,  consumption  or  production,  people's 
secretariats,  workingmen's  gardens,  societies  to  provide  cheap 
dwellings,  employment  bureaus,  domestic  science  schools,  mu- 
tual aid  societies,  agricultural  unions.  The  nature  of  this 
Manuel  social  pratique  may  be  judged  by  turning  to  a  particular 
chapter,  say  to  the  chapter  on  cooperative  production.  One 
finds  there  a  section  on  the  utility  of  cooperative  production  so- 
cieties, a  section  on  the  legal  form  of  organization  to  be  adopted, 
a  third  section  on  the  taxes  to  which  such  a  society  is  subject,  a 
fourth  on  practical  considerations  such  as  the  provision  of 
capital  and  the  establishment  of  a  clientele,  a  fifth  on  methods 
of  profit-sharing,  a  sixth  on  the  privileges  which  such  a  society 
enjoys,  a  seventh  on  the  central  organizations  with  which  such 
a  society  should  affiliate.1018 

Perhaps  it  is  unnecessary  to  describe  in  detail  the  other  hand- 
books,—  the  Manual  of  Practical  Law,1019  the  Practical  Guide 
to  the  Public  Assistance  Laws,1020  the  Economic  and  Social 
Vocabulary,1021  the  Illustrated  Almanac,1022  the  Practical 
Manual  of  Religious  Action,1023  the  Guide  to  Religious  Ac- 
tion,1024 the  Guide  to  the  Free  School.1025 

In  1908  the  Action  Populaire  entered  still  another  field  of 
social  propaganda.  It  began  to  publish  social  reviews.  The 
first  was  La  Revue  de  I' Action  Populaire,  a  little  green-covered 
magazine  published  the  tenth  of  the  month  and  the  twentieth 
of  every  other  month,  and  aiming  to  encourage  religious  and 
social  action;  the  review  frequently  contains  useful  judicial 
studies  of  social  legislation  as  well  as  detailed  information  re- 
garding practical  social  work.  Subscribers  to  the  review  also 
received,  on  the  thirtieth  of  each  month,  the  Study  Club  Cour- 
ier (Le  Courrier  des  Cercles  d'Etudes),  which  provided  ma- 
terial for  discussion  by  study-groups,  and  on  the  twentieth  of 
every  other  month,  Trade  Union  Life  (La  Vie  Syndicate),  a 
review  designed  to  encourage  Catholic  trade-unionism. 

Among  the  Action  Populaire's  numerous  periodical  publica- 
tions, Le  Mouvement  social  is  by  far  the  most  important.  Le 


328  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Mouvement  social  was  simply  the  continuation,  under  a  new 
name,  of  L' Association  catholique,  the  review  of  social  and 
labor  questions  founded  by  the  Association  of  Catholic  Work- 
ingmen's  Clubs  in  1876.  The  review  had  served  as  the  organ 
of  the  clubs  until  1891,  and  had  led  a  more  or  less  independent 
existence  as  the  principal  French  Social  Catholic  review  from 
1891  to  1908,  inclusive.  Under  its  old  management,  L' Associa- 
tion catholique  had  made  itself  not  only  the  forum  for  Social 
Catholic  discussions,  but  also  one  of  the  most  informing  and 
best  documented  French  reviews  of  labor  questions.  To  con- 
tinue that  tradition,  the  Action  Populaire  was  preeminently  well 
equipped,  with  its  editorial  staff,  its  social  information  bureau, 
its  contact  with  Catholic  social  opinion.  Accordingly,  in  1909, 
the  Action  Populaire  took  over  L' Association  catholique,  re- 
named it  Le  Mouvement  social,  and  entrusted  it  to  Abbe  G. 
Desbuquois  —  director  of  the  Action  Populaire  —  and  Joseph 
Zamanski  as  joint  editors.  In  the  first  issue  of  Le  Mouvement 
social,  the  new  editors  paid  tribute  to  the  past  work  of  the 
review  and  proclaimed  the  identity  of  their  own  spirit  with  that 
which  had  dominated  U Association  catholique. ,1026  The  con- 
tinuity of  the  review  was  indisputable. 

The  characteristic  of  Le  Mouvement  social  which  first  ar- 
rests the  attention  of  the  reader  is  the  wealth  of  documenta- 
tion. It  reprints  labor  laws  and  important  bills.  It  provides 
a  critical  bibliography  of  books  on  social  and  economic  ques- 
tions, in  all  languages.  Every  year  more  than  eight  hundred 
social  or  economic  articles  from  the  leading  French  foreign 
reviews  are  analyzed,  significant  portions  being  quoted.  These 
bibliographical  notes  are  so  arranged  and  printed  that  the  reader 
may  —  and  is  urged  to  —  cut  them  out  and  by  pasting  them  in 
a  scrap-book  provide  himself  with  a  very  thorough  and  up-to- 
date  topical  bibliography  on  any  or  all  social  questions.  More- 
over, the  principal  social  legislation,  parliamentary  discussions, 
social  and  labor  congresses,  investigations,  reports,  and  events 
of  the  month  are  noted  in  news  items.  Finally,  the  leading 
articles  each  month  are  usually  either  very  serious  and  de- 
tailed studies  of  economic  and  legislative  problems,  or  careful 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       329 

expositions  of  social  and  economic  theory.  Sometimes  they 
deal  with  French,  sometimes  with  foreign  labor  problems. 
Often  they  are  written  by  foreign  experts,  and  printed  in  Eng- 
lish, German,  or  Italian,  with  a  French  translation  as  supple- 
ment. 

Besides  its  pamphlets,  manuals,  and  reviews,  the  Action 
Populaire  distributes  books  on  labor  questions.  The  type  of 
book  may  be  judged  by  a  few  specimens.  In  1908  the  Action 
Populaire  published  a  volume  by  Leon  de  Seilhac  on  Labor 
Congresses  in  France,  a  scholarly  contribution  to  the  history  of 
the  Confederation  Generate  du  Travail.1™  The  following 
year,  was  published  a  book  entitled  Toward  Professional  Or- 
ganisation, by  Eugene  Duthoit,  professor  of  political  economy 
at  the  Catholic  University  of  Lille ;  the  book  examined  in  turn 
the  problems  of  labor  legislation,  employment  of  women,  the 
wage  contract,  unemployment,  and  trade-unionism,  with  a  view 
to  proving  the  importance  and  necessity  of  trade-organization 
as  the  core  of  social  reform.1028  Similar  in  aim,  but  different 
in  method,  was  O.  Jean's  book  on  Tr ode-Unionism,  which  re- 
viewed the  history  of  trade-unions  from  the  time  of  the 
medieval  guilds  down  to  the  present,  and  discussed  the  role 
of  trade  unions  in  social  legislation,  industrial  pacification,  co- 
operative production,  mutual  aid,  etc.1029  One  finds  among 
the  Action  Populaire's  publications  such  works  as  the  practical 
legal  commentary  on  workingmen's  pensions,  by  J.  Hachin 
and  A.  Agasse,1030  or  the  discussions  and  reports  of  conven- 
tions of  the  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  relative  to  appren- 
ticeship, and  the  formation  of  a  Catholic  labor  elite.™31 

Even  the  drama  and  the  novel  serve  their  turn  as  instru- 
ments of  social  propaganda.  Toward  the  Humble,  a  three-act 
play  by  Maurice  Rigaux,1032  and  When  the  Soul  is  Right,1033  a 
novel  by  the  same  author,  are  examples.  Charles  Calippe's 
study  of  Balzac's  Social  Ideas103*  likewise  published  by  the 
Action  Populaire,  and  Rene  Johannet's  Evolution  of  the  Social 
Novel  in  the  ipth  Century10™  show  how  even  literary  criti- 
cism is  drafted  to  serve  the  social  cause. 

Altogether,  the  Action  Populaire  distributed  about  1,000,000 


33°  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

pamphlets,  200,000  almanacs,  150,000  leaflets,  and  60,000  vol- 
umes, from  1903  to  1912.  This  is,  presumably,  in  addition  to 
its  periodical  reviews.1038 

That  the  Action  Populaire  served  not  merely  as  a  distributing 
and  editorial  centre  for  social  literature,  but  also  as  an  informa- 
tion bureau  has  already  been  suggested.  Every  year  thousands 
of  inquiries  are  received  by  the  office  at  Rheims,  and  thou- 
sands of  replies  sent  out,  telling  the  inquirers  how  to  found 
a  trade  union,  or  a  mutual  aid  society,  or  where  to  find  au- 
thoritative information  on  the  question  of  social  insurance,  or 
what  speaker  to  obtain  for  a  public  meeting.  One  corre- 
spondent asks  what  works  he  should  consult  on  the  funda- 
mental principles  underlying  the  social  sciences ;  another  de- 
sires to  know  what  employment  young  girls,  leaving  their  home 
village,  should  seek;  a  third  wishes  to  get  in  touch  with  a  re- 
liable society  for  the  provision  of  cheap  dwellings.  Or  again, 
the  Action  Populaire  will  be  requested  to  send  an  expert  to 
help  organize  a  social-service  institution,  of  one  sort  or  an- 
other.1037 

Finally,  the  Action  Populaire  has  of  late  years  engaged  in- 
creasingly in  the  work  of  organizing  study-courses,  participat- 
ing in  social  conferences,  organizing  popular  conventions.  Its 
representatives  make  extended  speaking  tours.  Particularly 
important  are  the  conventions  held  by  the  A.  P.  at  Paris  and 
at  Rheims,  since  1907,  sometimes  for  the  clergy,  sometimes 
for  the  workingmen,  sometimes  for  social  workers.  By  1911, 
representatives  of  the  A.  P.  had  spoken  at  about  200  conven- 
tions.1038 

DOCTRINES  OF  THE  Action  Populaire 

Thus  far  we  have  been  preoccupied  with  a  mere  catalogue  of 
the  means  by  which  the  Action  Populaire  strives  to  realize  its 
aims,  and  have  given  little  heed  to  the  nature  of  the  aims  them- 
selves. To  correct  this  omission,  we  turn  to  Abbe  Desbuquois, 
director  of  the  organization  and  editor  of  Le  Mouvement  social, 
for  an  exposition  of  his  views. 

In  a  series  of  articles  in  Le  Mouvement  social  for  1912, 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       331 

Abbe  Desbuquois  sets  forth  the  fundamental  principles  of  "  So- 
cial Catholic  Action  "  as  he  conceives  them.  At  the  outset,  the 
writer  announces  that  he  finds  his  chief  inspiration  and  author- 
ity in  Rerum  Novarum  and  the  other  papal  encyclicals  on  the 
social  question ;  the  statement  is  significant,  as  evidence  that  the 
Social  Catholic  Movement  in  France  is  decidedly  ultramon- 
tane.1039 

By  way  of  historical  preface,  Abbe  Desbuquois  explains  how 
economic  questions  have  come  to  play  as  important  a  role  as 
they  do  in  modern  society.  The  industrial  revolution  created 
terrible  extremes  of  wealth  and  poverty,  and  made  industry 
more  fluid  and  dynamic.  On  the  other  hand,  the  advent  of 
political  democracy  placed  the  weapon  of  universal  suffrage 
in  the  hands  of  the  masses,  who  naturally  attempted  to  wield 
it  in  their  own  economic  interest.  "  Hence,  during  the  past 
sixty  years,  the  progressively  social  character  of  legislation, 
the  birth  and  development  of  a  labor  code."  At  the  same  time, 
"  the  employers,  jealously  defending  their  rights  or  their  in- 
terests, exert  a  parallel  influence  on  the  same  public  authori- 
ties, and  often  in  opposition  to  the  efforts  of  the  wage-earners." 
Political  as  well  as  social  life  is  overshadowed  by  economic  in- 
terests. 

Social  and  political  life  having  become  so  predominantly 
economic  in  character,  the  measure  of  religious  influence  is  its 
ability  to  penetrate  economic  life.  Accordingly,  Catholicism 
must  work  for  the  organization  of  modern  industry  on  a  basis 
acceptable  to  Christian  morality. 

Now  from  the  viewpoint  of  Christian  morality  two  funda- 
mental laws  of  human  existence  lie  at  the  basis  of  social  philoso- 
phy. First,  man  must  work  in  order  to  live.  Secondly,  man 
must  live  "  toward  God."  And  the  second  of  these  command- 
ments is  greater  than  the  first.  Labor,  in  the  eyes  of  Christian- 
ity, is  dignified  as  the  means  by  which  mankind  may  exist  in 
its  aspiration  toward  God.  Because  of  this  relationship  be- 
tween work  and  man's  moral  aim,  the  labor  question  must 
be  regarded  as  moral,  quite  as  much  as  it  is  economic.  Con- 
siderations of  morality  run  through  all  problems  of  capital  and 


332  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

labor.  Thus,  the  wage  question  involves  the  moral  principles 
of  contractual  equality,  commutative  justice,  the  living  wage, 
legitimacy  of  property. 

The  necessity  of  Christian  action  in  behalf  of  morality  in 
labor  questions,  says  Abbe  Desbuquois,  has  been  proclaimed  by 
Leo  XIII  and  Pius  X.  So  important  is  the  task  and  so  binding 
the  obligation,  that  a  Catholic  is  not  truly  a  Catholic  unless  he 
is  "  social."  The  term  "  Social  Catholic  "  is  employed  at  pres- 
ent only  because  not  all  Catholics  have  awakened  to  their  re- 
sponsibility ;  with  the  progressive  awakening,  it  is  hoped,  the  ad- 
jective "  social  "  will  become  unnecessary. 

The  function  of  Social  Catholicism,  in  the  Abbe's  opinion, 
is  not  merely  to  render  charitable  service  in  giving  bread  to 
the  hungry,  a  home  to  the  homeless,  care  to  the  sick,  work  to 
the  unemployed.  Preventive  rather  than  palliative  action  is  to 
be  preferred.  The  aim  should  be  to  restore  the  social  organ- 
isms which  are  capable  of  preventing  destitution,  to  create  em- 
ployment bureaus  which  will  reduce  idleness  to  a  minimum,  to 
build  airy  and  sanitary  dwellings  in  which  the  plague  of  tu- 
berculosis will  not  find  easy  lodging,  to  organize  industry  so 
that  injustice  will  not  prevail,  to  Christianize  manners  and 
thought,  to  combat  irreligion,  intemperance  and  vice.  The 
mission  is  twofold :  it  embraces  spiritual  influence  and  temporal 
reform. 

The  errors  to  be  combated,  in  the  realm  of  economic  ideas, 
are  Socialism  and  Liberalism  (i.e.,  economic  laissez-faire}, 
— "  the  two  poles  of  contemporary  social  error."  These  doc- 
trines, says  the  director  of  the  Action  Populaire,  rest  upon  a 
pagan  materialism  repugnant  to  Christianity.  Socialism  rep- 
resents numbers;  Liberalism,  wealth;  neither,  justice.  Social- 
ism on  the  one  hand,  and  individualistic  "  plutocracy  "  on  the 
other  hand,  "  both  aspiring  to  tyranny,  would  condemn  man- 
kind either  to  the  despotism  of  numbers  or  to  the  despotism  of 
wealth."  Either  of  these  alternatives  would  be  "  brutal  and 
materialistic." 

Liberalism  (or  economic  laissez-faire}  refused  to  permit  the 
state  or  the  guild  to  protect  the  workingman  against  pitiless 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  > CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       333 

exploitation.  By  its  excesses  it  gave  birth  to  revolutionary 
Socialism. 

Both  errors,  Abbe  Desbuquois  believes,  have  misled  many 
Catholics.  Liberalism,  for  its  part,  has  induced  many  to  re- 
gard economic  laws  as  something  apart  from  morality  and  to 
forget  the  fact  that  labor  is  a  human  activity,  not  a  merchan- 
dise. Contrary  to  the  opinion  of  Liberal  economists,  economic 
laws  are  in  truth  human  laws,  rather  than  physical  laws,  and 
as  human  laws  they  must  be  based  upon  morality.  Hence, 
political  economy,  rightly  conceived,  should  become  a  moral 
science,  conditioned  in  part  by  material  conditions  but  rising 
above  and  dominating  them.  In  a  direction  contrary  to  Liberal- 
ism, many  sociologists  have  rushed  to  the  opposite  extreme, 
ignoring  the  material  basis  of  economic  science,  and  pursuing 
will-o'-the-wisp  Utopias.  Error  lies  in  either  extreme,  truth 
in  the  balanced  consideration  of  both  material  facts  and  moral 
laws. 

Similarly,  the  exaggeration  of  either  liberty  or  equality  as 
a  philosophical  concept  leads  to  social  error.  Liberalism's 
fundamental  defect  is  that  it  exaggerates  individual  liberty  to 
the  point  of  destroying  all  real  equality.  Socialism,  on  the 
contrary,  exaggerates  equality  to  the  destruction  of  all  liberty. 
Christian  sociology  seeks  a  middle  course,  assigning  to  both 
liberty  and  equality  their  proper  values,  because  it  posits  the 
twofold  nature  of  man,  social  and  individual.  As  an  indi- 
vidual being,  man  has  certain  imprescriptible  rights, —  above 
all,  the  right  to  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  i.  e.,  salvation.  This 
right  implies  an  inalienable  liberty,  in  which  all  men  are  born 
equal.  On  the  other  hand,  as  social  beings,  men  have  reciprocal 
and  unequal  rights  and  duties,  and  are  subject  to  social  laws. 
They  play  different  roles  in  the  family,  in  the  commune,  in  the 
church,  in  the  association,  in  the  state.  The  child  has  neither 
the  same  rights  nor  the  same  duties  as  the  parent:  to  treat 
them  as  equals  is  absurd.  Human  beings  are  unequal  in 
strength,  in  wisdom,  in  wealth,  in  age,  in  sex,  in  social  re- 
sponsibilities. Christian  sociology  recognizes  such  social  in- 
equality and  its  corollary:  the  necessity  of  social  laws. 


334  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Having  disposed  of  opposing  social  philosophies  in  this  man- 
ner, Abbe  Desbuquois  proceeds  to  explain  his  constructive 
program  in  detail.  The  organization  of  labor  is  the  first 
point  considered. 

The  principle  of  unionism  or  association  in  industry,  he  re- 
minds us,  had  been  emphatically  declared  by  Leo  XIII  and 
Pius  X  as  a  major  remedy  for  the  evils  of  anarchic  industry, 
but  the  precise  form  which  the  principle  of  association  was  to 
take, —  whether  in  labor  unions,  parallel  unions  of  employers 
and  workingmen,  mixed  unions,  or  cooperative  unions, —  had 
not  been  specified.  Catholics  were  therefore  free  to  favor 
different  forms  of  labor  organization. 

Abbe  Desbuquois  himself  considered  mixed  trade  unions  of 
capital  and  labor  an  unpractical  ideal,  popular  as  it  had  form- 
erly been  with  Count  Albert  de  Mun  and  other  Social  Catholics 
a  generation  ago.  A  more  practical  scheme  was  the  formation 
of  separate  or  parallel  employers'  unions  and  labor  unions, 
and  the  establishment  of  joint  boards,  representative  of  both 
unions,  harmonizing  the  interests  of  capital  and  labor.  Such 
"  guilds  "  or  inter-unions,  if  we  may  use  the  word,  of  capital 
and  labor,  would  form  great  federations  or  "  labor  corps " 
uniting  all  persons  engaged  in  each  of  the  general  categories 
of  economic  employments  —  industry,  agriculture,  commerce, 
the  liberal  professions.  The  proper  name  for  such  a  system  of 
guild  organization,  observes  Abbe  Desbuquois,  would  be 
"  syndicalism,"  had  not  a  false,  revolutionary  meaning  been 
attached  to  that  term.1040 

In  opposition  to  many  advocates  of  the  guild  system,  Abbe 
Desbuquois  does  not  believe  that  membership  in  the  trade 
unions  should  be  made  compulsory  by  law,  or  that  the  trade 
unions  should  have  the  right  to  enforce  the  "  closed  shop  " 
and  to  impose  regulations  upon  organized  workers.  Such 
rights,  he  fears,  would  injure  the  guild  movement  in  two  ways: 
first,  they  would  arouse  antagonism,  since  the  trade  unions  at 
present  embrace  only  a  small  minority  of  the  workers  and  are 
unrepresentative  of  the  majority;  second,  they  would  make 
the  trade  unions  too  much  the  creatures  of  the  government, 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       335 

dependent  upon  state  support  and  subject  to  political  control, 
whereas  their  true  mission  is  to  serve  as  autonomous  social 
organizations,  as  bulwarks  against  state  socialism.  Ultimately 
they  should  take  over  the  functions  of  industrial  regulation  and 
insurance,  but  as  autonomous  private  organizations,  rather 
than  as  shadows  of  a  socialistic  state.  With  this  goal  in  mind, 
the  trade  unions  must  be  encouraged,  consulted,  fostered. 
Gradually  they  will  become  more  representative,  less  revolu- 
tionary. A  kind  of  customary  law  for  industry  will  grow  up 
under  their  influence.  The  process  must  be  slow  and  organic 
rather  than  abrupt  and  despotic.  In  this,  as  in  all  social  mat- 
ters, liberty  and  authority  must  be  harmonized  and  balanced. 

Social  legislation  constitutes  the  second  important  element 
of  constructive  social  reform.  After  a  preliminary  observa- 
tion that  most  civilized  -states  have  found  social  legislation 
necessary,  Abbe  Desbuquois  discusses  the  attitude  of  the  vari- 
ous schools  of  thought  on  this  question.  His  classification  of 
the  "  non-interventionist,"  "ultra-interventionist,"  and  "  in- 
terventionist "  doctrines  is  not  without  interest. 

Among  the  "  non-interventionists,"  i.  e.,  the  opponents  of  la- 
bor legislation,  he  includes  the  famous  "  Manchester  School  "  of 
Liberal  political  economy,  and  the  contemporary  Liberal  school 
represented  by  economists  like  Yves  Guyot.  The  latter,  in 
an  opportunist  spirit,  make  practical  concessions  to  the  demand 
for  social  legislation,  but  cling  in  principle  to  the  ideal  of 
economic  liberty.  With  them  belongs  also  a  group  of  Catholic 
sociologists,  who  resemble  the  Liberals  in  their  distrust  of  the 
state  and  their  concern  for  liberty,  and  who  tend  to  draw  closer 
to  the  classical  or  Liberal  political  economy. 

The  "  ultra-interventionists  "  are,  of  course,  the  Socialists, 
ranging  from  revolutionary  Marxian  collectivism  to  the  state 
socialism  and  reformism  of  Millerand,  Viviani  Briand,  Benoit- 
Malon,  Fourniere,  Delville.  Revolutionary  syndicalism,  born 
of  Marxism,  belongs  with  this  group  historically,  but  aims  to 
substitute  itself  for  the  state. 

The  "  interventionist "  group  includes  several  schools.  The 
Social  Catholic  school  is  interventionist  in  that  it  asks  the  state 


THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

to  promote  public  welfare,  but  it  assigns  to  state  intervention 
only  a  "  secondary  role,"  and  regards  the  organization  of  in- 
dustry as  the  principal  reform.  The  "  Democratic  "  school  is 
more  individualist ;  it  demands  intervention  in  the  interest  of 
the  individual  rather  than  of  society  or  of  social  organisms. 
The  "  Solidarist "  school  borrows  from  biology  and  sociology 
the  principle  of  union  for  preservation  of  life,  the  idea  of 
social  solidarity;  it  asks  the  State  to  cooperate  in  protecting 
public  interests,  to  remove  obstacles  impeding  free  association, 
to  repress  abuses,  to  impose  on  all  the  duties  of  providence 
and  solidarity.  Finally,  the  "  Eclectic  "  school  deems  that  the 
State  should  protect  the  weak,  in  the  general  interest. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  Social  Catholics  the  non-intervention- 
ist and  ultra-interventionist  positions  are  equally  false.  The 
state  should  be  neither  a  policeman  whose  sole  duty  is  to  pro- 
tect private  rights,  nor  an  omnipotent  source  of  all  rights.  It 
should,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Social  Catholics,  (i)  protect  in- 
dividual rights,  and  (2)  promote  public  welfare,  not  by  sub- 
stituting itself  for  private  authority,  for  the  trade  union,  for 
the  family,  but  by  fostering  and  supplementing  the  activity  of 
private  individuals  and  social  organisms.  It  should  give  ju- 
ridical force  to  moral  obligations. 

This  is  not  a  "  vague  compromise  between  socialism  and 
liberalism  " ;  it  is  not  a  bastard  system.  If  it  pursues  a  mid- 
dle course,  declares  Abbe  Desbuquois,  it  is  because  the  truth 
habitually  lies  between  contradictory  errors.  Social  Catholic 
interventionism  is  an  organic  doctrine  based  on  the  very  nature 
of  society  and  of  the  state.  Nor  is  it  an  a  priori  doctrine,  as 
was  the  Liberalism  of  Ricardo  or  the  Socialism  of  Marx.  It 
is  based  upon  historical  study  and  economic  observation  as 
well  as  upon  deductive  reasoning.  In  this  respect,  it  is  much 
sounder  than  its  rivals.  The  Marxian  thesis  of  the  concen- 
tration of  capital  is  not  borne  out  by  facts ;  Abbe  Desbuquois 
observes  that  certain  industries,  to  be  sure,  are  concentrat- 
ing, but  that  small  industries  still  subsist,  in  which  small 
enterprises  are  the  rule,  and  that  in  agriculture  the  number 
of  small  holdings  is  increasing  in  52  departments  of  France. 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       337 

Liberalism  is  no  less  at  variance  with  the  facts  when  it  asserts 
that  economic  liberty  is  the  best  assurance  of  social  peace  and 
progress ;  the  facts  prove  quite  the  contrary. 

Elaborating  further  the  Social  Catholic  theory  of  interven- 
tion, Abbe  Desbuquois  sets  limits  to  state  action.  The  state 
should  not  assume  functions  which  can  be  discharged  equally 
well  or  better  by  private  organization;  for  example,  the  state 
should  leave  the  administration  of  social  insurance  to  private 
associations.  Moreover,  the  State  is  not  as  well  fitted  as  the 
guilds  or  the  industrial  unions  to  draft  detailed  regulations  for 
industry.  In  general,  his  reply  to  the  ultra-interventionists 
is  that  modern  society  is  suffering  from  excessive  state  inter- 
vention, prejudicial  to  individual  liberty  and  to  freedom  of 
association. 

On  the  other  hand,  as  against  the  non-interventionists,  he  as- 
serts that  the  state  is  obliged, —  by  its  very  raison  d'etre, —  to 
protect  public  welfare  by  ensuring  justice,  repressing  abuses, 
eliminating  dangers.  The  right  of  private  property  and  the 
freedom  of  labor  are  conditioned  by  man's  individual  right 
to  existence  and  by  man's  social  character.  Thus,  one  indi- 
vidual's rights  to  property,  or  to  labor,  may  be  limited  by  the 
right  of  other  individuals  to  existence.  The  rights  of  the 
strongest  and  richest  may  be  limited,  to  increase  the  rights  of  the 
weak  and  the  poor ;  the  result  will  be  increased  general  welfare 
in  which  all  will  share.  The  state  is  bound  to  make  sure  that 
workingmen  are  not  condemned  to  excessive  labor;  that  they 
enjoy  leisure  on  Sundays ;  that  women,  and  above  all,  children 
are  not  employed  to  their  detriment.  Abbe  Desbuquois  is  con- 
vinced that  this  conception  of  social  legislation  is  in  harmony 
with  papal  doctrine. 

Much  remains  to  be  done  in  France,  he  points  out,  in  the 
field  of  social  legislation.  In  the  sanction  of  the  Sunday  holi- 
day, the  limitation  of  the  working  day,  the  protection  of 
women  and  children,  the  formulation  of  a  "  charter  "  for  the 
guild  system,  the  organization  of  social  insurance,  and  the 
protection  of  workingmen's  savings,  French  legislation  is  woe- 
fully incomplete  and  imperfect.  But  under  the  influence  of 


THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

the  Socialists  and  Radicals,  the  state,  instead  of  completing  its 
proper  task,  is  arrogating  to  itself  functions  to  which  it  has  no 
right  and  is  assuming  administration  of  enterprises  which 
properly  belong  to  private  organizations.  Government  owner- 
ship of  economic  enterprises  is  necessary  in  certain  cases,  but 
it  is  always  a  danger,  because  the  state  has  such  power  over 
its  employees ;  against  the  danger,  a  genuine  civil  service  re- 
form might  be  some  safeguard. 

As  he  arrives  at  his  conclusion,  Abbe  Desbuquois  grows 
eloquent.  We  are  living,  he  writes,  in  an  age  of  enormous 
possibilities.  It  is  an  age  when  new  inventions  are  continually 
revolutionizing  industry.  Who  can  foresee  the  effects  of  the 
single  fact  of  aerial  navigation?  Moreover,  the  laboring  class 
is  restless,  stirring  uneasily  with  the  force  of  new  ideas,  dream- 
ing of  international  proletarian  uprisings.  International 
finance,  at  the  opposite  extreme  of  the  social  scale,  is  more 
powerful  than  ever  before;  it  pulls  the  strings  of  diplomacy; 
it  decides  war  and  peace.  Startling  developments  of  industry, 
proletarian  insurrections,  devastating  capitalistic  wars  are  not 
"  chimerical "  perils.1041 

In  the  face  of  these  eventualities,  the  social  order  seems  to 
require  "  a  stronger  authority,  a  more  extensive  right  of  surveil- 
lance and  control,  a  right  of  prompt  and  sure  repression." 
Consequently,  "  revolutionary  tradition,"  hoping  to  legitimize 
and  prolong  "  a  century  of  encroachments  and  oppression," 
exalts  the  state  as  the  unique  authority,  the  source  of  all  au- 
thority. In  this,  revolutionary  tradition  gravely  errs. 
Granted  that  the  state  is  the  supreme  organ  of  law  and  justice 
in  society,  granted  that  it  is  the  promoter  of  public  prosperity, 
nevertheless  it  should  utilize  for  the  accomplishment  of  its 
mission  such  social  authorities  as  are  independent  by  origin. 
Its  imperious  social  duty  will  be  all  the  more  difficult  to  perform 
if  the  state  persists  in  laying  its  own  hand  —  often  clumsy 
and  heavy  —  directly  upon  the  delicate  and  intricate  fabric  of 
society  and  industry.  It  will  therefore  be  an  historic  moment 
when  the  state,  conscious  of  this  peril,  decides  to  recognize 
the  authority  of  social  institutions  such  as  the  commune  and 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       339 

the  province  and  trade  organizations  and  associations, —  when 
it  authenticates  the  statutes  or  customs,  the  privileges,  which 
will  enable  these  organizations  to  become  stabilizing  institu- 
tions, endowed  with  limited  but  certain  powers,  alleviating 
the  burden  of  the  central  government,  touching  the  springs 
of  national  life  with  a  delicacy  of  which  the  state  itself  is  in- 
capable, and  adapting  themselves  infinitely  better  than  the 
state  to  the  complexity  of  a  society  in  which  everything  is  in- 
terrelated and  interdependent.  There  need  be  no  fear  lest  the 
state's  supreme  authority  be  impaired ;  for,  free  and  autonomous 
as  the  various  minor  social  organisms  may  be  in  their  proper 
spheres,  they  will  still  be  subjected,  in  so  far  as  national  in- 
terests are  concerned,  to  national  surveillance. 

As  equilibrating  and  stabilizing  elements,  coming  between 
the  state  and  the  individual,  trade  unions,  guilds,  and  profes- 
sional organizations  are  especially  to  be  favored,  fostered,  and 
developed.  Such  institutions  will  protect  society  against  the 
tyranny  of  the  state,  on  the  one  hand,  and  against  the  peril  of 
anarchic  individualism  on  the  other  hand.  Nor  is  this  their 
only  merit.  They  are  peculiarly  fitted  to  develop  social  leader- 
ship, to  train  the  "elites"  so  sorely  needed  in  modern  life. 

Facing  these  grave  and  complicated  problems,  Abbe  Desbu- 
quois  concludes,  the  Social  Catholics  rely  confidently  upon  the 
inspiration  of  the  Church,  and  are  firm:  in  the  conviction  that, 
in  measure  as  they  succeed  in  realizing  the  Social  Catholic 
program,  the  state  will  become  the  instrument  of  justice  with- 
out becoming,  by  excessive  intervention,  the  embodiment  of  a 
new  tyranny. 

Such  are  the  aims  and  the  principles  of  the  Action  Populaire. 
The  remark  may  be  added  that  the  organization  seems  to  have 
been  particularly  successful  in  winning  the  approbation  not 
only  of  Social  Catholic  leaders,  but  also  of  the  higher  clergy 
in  France  and  of  the  Holy  See.1042 

THE  SEMAINES  SOCIALES  1043 

If  the  Action  Populaire  of  Rheims  may  be  styled  the  central 
office  of  the  Social  Catholic  Movement,  the  "  Social  Weeks  " 


340  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

or  Semaines  saddles  might  well  be  called  the  national  con- 
gresses of  the  movement.  For  it  is  in  the  Semaines  societies 
that  leading  Social  Catholics  of  all  shades  and  parties,  repre- 
senting all  regions  of  France,  annually  foregather  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  social  problems.  These  assemblies  have  become  so 
important  that  even  anticlerical  Socialists  and  Syndicalists 
recognize  them  as  impressive  manifestations  of  the  numerical 
strength  and  intellectual  vigor  of  the  movement.1044  Every- 
body knows  what  the  Semaines  so-ciales  are,  says  Etienne 
Lamy.1045  In  the  words  of  a  contributor  to  the  Revue  hebdo- 
madaire, 

Today,  all  courses  and  all  classic  works  treating  of  economic 
doctrines  give  a  large  space  to  the  study  of  Social  Catholicism. 
And  all  signalize  the  "  Semaines  sociales "  as  the  most  character- 
istic and  most  notably  scientific  manifestation  of  this  sociological 
school.1046 

The  institution  is  not  peculiar  to  France.  The  German 
Social  Catholics  under  Hitze's  leadership  had  organized  social 
study  courses  and  conferences  at  Miinchen-Gladbach  and  at 
other  places  since  the  'nineties.  The  Belgians  held  their  first 
"  agricultural  week  "  in  1905,  and  their  first  "  labor  week  "  in 
1908.  Holland  inaugurated  a  "  social  week "  at  Utrecht  in 
1906.  Spain  and  Italy  followed  the  example  in  1907.  The 
Poles  inaugurated  similar  conventions  at  Warsaw,  Przemysl, 
and  Posen  —  that  is,  in  each  of  the  three  sundered  fragments  of 
Poland  —  in  the  same  year.  The  Lithuanian  Roman  Catholics 
held  their  first  "  social  week  "  at  Kovno,  in  January,  1909. 
Luxemburg,  Switzerland,  Austria,  and  other  countries  de- 
veloped similar  institutions.  Even  Latin  America  adopted  the 
idea  in  1912,  when  Uruguay  convened  the  first  "  social  week  " 
of  South  America.  The  "  social  week  "  is  now  almost  uni- 
versal in  Catholic  countries,  and  the  more  important  of  these 
congresses  are  usually  attended  by  numerous  foreign  delegates, 
so  that  the  movement  is  at  once  national  and  international  in 
character.1047 

The  Semaine  sociale  of  France  was  originated  in  1904  by  the 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT        341 

joint  efforts  of  a  group  of  enthusiastic  young  Social  Catholics 
belonging  to  the  "  Federation  of  the  South-East,"  a  regional 
organization  of  study-groups  whose  organ  was  the  Chronique 
sociale  de  France,  and  of  the  Social  Catholic  Study  Union 
which  had  been  formed  in  1902  under  the  chairmanship  of 
Henri  Lorin  —  one  of  the  leaders  trained  up  in  the  Association 
of  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs  under  the  influence  of  Count 
Albert  de  Mun  and  the  Marquis  de  La  Tour  du  Pin.  The 
Semaines  societies,  therefore,  represented  a  continuation  of  the 
movement  inaugurated  by  de  Mun  and  La  Tour  du  Pin.1048 

The  purpose  which  the  founders  of  Semaines  sociales  had 
in  mind  was  explained  by  Henri  Lorin.  As  practical  Catholics, 
he  said,  they  wished  to  recognize  clearly  the  implications  of 
Catholic  doctrine  from  a  social  point  of  view.  They  wished 
the  "  requirements  of  justice,  as  implied  in  the  affirmations  " 
of  their  faith,  to  be  realized  in  the  details  of  social  relation- 
ships. Furthermore,  he  added, 

We  desire  to  discover  in  the  doctrines  which  attempt  to  solve 
the  social  question  whatever  unconsciously  Catholic  and,  therefore, 
profoundly  true  elements  they  may  possess,  and  we  wish  to  give 
to  the  men  who  thus  unwittingly  participate  in  the  ideas  which  are 
ours,  knowledge  of  their  affinity  with  the  Christian  conception, 
knowledge  of  the  extent  to  which  they  have  borrowed  from  it  and 
of  the  agreements  into  which  logic  should  guide  them.1049 

The  Semaine  sociale,  as  its  founders  conceived  it,  was  to  be 
a  sort  of  migratory  popular  university  for  social  research.  In 
one  city  after  another,  year  by  year,  it  would  enable  the  leading 
Catholic  experts  on  social  and  economic  questions  to  instruct 
serious  students  as  well  as  large  popular  audiences,  in  short 
one-week  courses. 

At  Lyons  in  1904  the  first  Semaine  sociale  was  attended  by 
231  French  laymen,  222  French  priests,  and  19  foreigners.  The 
bulk  of  the  assembly  merely  attended  the  popular  lectures,  but 
a  hundred  or  so  more  earnest  students  attended  the  conference 
courses  religiously  and  took  copious  notes,  as  one  might  do 
at  any  university.  The  next  year,  at  Orleans,  seven  or  eight 


342  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

hundred  persons  attended.  At  Dijon,  in  1906,  a  still  larger 
crowd  —  about  1200  —  was  attracted.  At  Amiens,  in  1907, 
there  were  about  1400.  At  Marseilles,  in  1908,  at  Bordeaux 
in  1909,  at  Rouen,  in  1910,  at  Saint- Etienne  in  1911,  at  Limoges 
in  1912,  at  Versailles  in  1913,  the  "  social  week"  continued  to 
draw  the  same  large  attendances.  Some  1500  persons  visited 
the  Semaine  at  Versailles, —  the  largest  of  all, —  including  24 
delegates  from  Belgium  and  smaller  delegations  from  Algeria, 
Germany,  Brazil,  Canada,  England,  Spain,  Italy,  Holland,  Ar- 
gentine, Switzerland.1050  During  the  war,  the  Semaines  were 
suspended ;  in  1919,  however,  a  Semaine  was  held  at  Metz. 

To  attend  as  a  student  at  one  of  the  Semaines  sociales,  says 
Abbe  Charles  Calippe,  is  no  "  sinecure."  From  eight  o'clock 
in  the  morning  until  eleven  at  night,  the  student  "  has  hardly 
time  to  breathe."  In  the  morning,  he  attends  two  lecture- 
courses,  each  lasting  an  hour  and  a  half ;  after  lunch,  he  is 
taken  to  visit  neighboring  factories,  cooperative  societies,  trade 
unions,  or  workingmen's  gardens ;  late  in  the  afternoon,  there  is 
another  lecture-course;  and,  finally,  in  the  evening  there  is  a 
general  lecture,  open  to  a  more  popular  audience  as  well  as  to 
the  real  students.1051 

Representatives  of  all  social  classes, —  excepting  only  the 
socially  inert, —  attend  the  Semaines.  Professors,  lawyers, 
journalists,  and  engineers,  representing  the  intellectual  bour- 
geoisie, rub  shoulders  with  ordinary  workingmen  and  with  aris- 
tocratic landed  proprietors.  Many,  if  not  most,  represent  some 
active  social  interest:  they  are  chairmen  of  study  clubs  or  of 
young  men's  associations,  organizers  of  trade  unions  or  of 
mutual-aid  societies,  founders  of  workingmen's  gardens,  or 
writers  on  social  questions.  Particularly  important,  consider- 
ing the  future  development  of  the  movement,  is  the  large  at- 
tendance of  the  clergy.  The  Semaines  are  usually  held  under 
the  patronage  of  the  local  bishop  or  archbishop,  and  receive 
many  encouragements  from  the  episcopacy.  Every  year  several 
hundred  of  the  clergy  attend ;  sometimes  there  are  five  or  six 
hundred.  By  the  Semaine  sociale  the  clergy  are  kept  in  touch 
with  lay  experts  on  social  legislation,  with  lay  economists  and 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       343 

sociologists,  as  well  as  with  priests,  like  Abbe  Antoine,  Abbe 
Calippe,  Abbe  Sertillanges,  and  Father  Rutten,  who  are  leaders 
in  social  action  and  social  theory. 

Thus  the  clergy  are  kept  abreast  of  new  developments  in 
social  reform  and  in  economic  doctrine,  and  return  to  their 
parishes  inspired  with  ideas,  which  they  can  hardly  avoid  trans- 
mitting to  their  parishioners.  They  act  as  a  leaven,  which  has 
not  yet  thoroughly  permeated  the  Catholic  masses,  but  is  bound 
to  have  a  very  wide  influence,  and  will  in  all  probability  pro- 
duce—  in  the  course  of  time  —  a  substantial  unity  of  social 
doctrine  among  French  Catholics. 

Another  factor  which  may  tend  to  promote  such  unity  is  the 
care  with  which  the  speakers  at  the  Semaines  sociales  are 
chosen  so  as  to  represent  not  only  the  main  body  of  Social 
Catholic  thought,  but  also  more  or  less  divergent  wings  of  the 
movement.  For  example,  Urbain  Guerin  and  Georges  Blondel, 
eminent  economists  belonging  to  the  Reforme  sociale  or  Le 
Play  school,  represent  the  right  wing,  more  conservative  than 
the  school  of  de  Mun.  Max  Turmann,  professor  at  the  Cath- 
olic University  of  Fribourg,  member  of  the  French  academy, 
and  author  of  a  book  on  the  development  of  Social  Catholicism, 
is  one  of  the  representatives  of  the  left  wing,  which  shades  into 
the  Christian  Democratic  movement,  more  radical  than  de 
Mun's  school  in  its  attitude  toward  democracy  and  social  legis- 
lation. Abbe  Lemire,  father  of  the  "  workingmen's  gardens  " 
and  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  radical  political  representa- 
tives of  Christian  Democracy,  was  among  the  speakers  at  one  of 
the  Semaines  (1905)  ;  if  he  was  omitted  from  the  program  of 
later  years,  possibly  it  was  because  he  got  into  difficulties  with 
his  ecclesiastical  superiors. 

To  name  the  lecturers  at  the  Semaines  sociales  would  be 
almost  the  same  as  giving  a  list  of  the  leading  Social  Catholics 
of  France  (and  Belgium).  To  those  already  mentioned, 
should  be  added, —  and  even  then  the  list  is  by  no  means  com- 
plete,—  the  names  of  Abbe  Desbuquois,  director  of  the  Action 
Populaire;  Joseph  Zamanski,  joint  editor  of  Le  Mouvement 
social  and  a  member  of  the  secretariat  social  of  Paris;  Raoul 


344  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Jay,  professor  in  the  faculty  of  law  of  the  University  of  Paris, 
member  of  the  Superior  Council  of  Labor,  secretary  of  the 
French  Association  for  the  Legal  Protection  of  the  Working- 
man,  and  an  eminent  authority  on  social  legislation;  Jean 
Brunhes,  founder  of  the  French  Social  League  of  Consumers, 
and  professor  at  the  Catholic  University  of  Fribourg;  Etienne 
Martin- Saint-Leon,  librarian  of  the  Musee  social  and  historian 
of  the  guild  movement ;  Eugene  Duthoit,  professor  of  political 
economy  at  the  University  of  Lille,  and  one  of  the  "  masters  " 
of  French  Social  Catholic  theory ;  Professor  Boissard,  likewise 
of  Lille;  Professor  Chenon,  of  the  Paris  Faculty  of  Law ;  Abbe 
Antoine,  formerly  professor  at  Angers,  one  of  the  foremost 
students  of  the  theological  principles  involved  in  social  ques- 
tions ;  Charles  Broutin,  a  common  laborer  —  a  "  fitter  "  —  active 
in  the  Christian  labor  movement  in  northern  France ;  Abbe  Ca- 
lippe,  professor  at  the  theological  seminary  of  Amiens,  and 
author  of  several  works  on  the  Social  Catholic  movement ;  Abbe 
Sertillanges,  one  of  the  greatest  preachers  of  Paris,  and  pro- 
fessor at  the  Catholic  Institute;  Maurice  Deslandres,  of  the 
University  of  Dijon,  vice-president  of  the  Social  League  of 
Consumers ;  Moysset,  editor  of  the  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes; 
Etienne  Lamy,  editor  of  Le  Correspondent.  The  number  of 
professors  is  worth  noting;  it  means  that  in  the  Catholic  Uni- 
versities the  social  doctrines  of  the  Semaines  sociales  are  being 
imparted  to  the  rising  generation  of  Catholic  intellectuals. 

Among  the  foreigners  who  speak  at  the  French  Semaines 
sociales,  Belgian  Social  Catholics  are  the  most  numerous.  Car- 
ton de  Wiart,  Belgian  premier  during  the  Great  War  of  1914, 
was  one  of  the  speakers  at  the  Semaine  of  1910.  Mgr.  De- 
ploige,  rector  of  the  Institut  de  philosophic  of  Louvain,  deliv- 
ered a  lecture  at  the  Semaine  of  1913,  criticizing  the  theories 
of  Durkheim,  the  great  Belgian  sociologist.  Most  interesting 
of  all  is  Pere  Rutten,  a  Dominican,  who  out  of  sympathy  for  the 
proletariat  exchanged  his  white  friar's  habit  for  the  miner's 
smutty  frock,  lived  the  toilsome  life  of  a  day-laborer,  and 
eventually  became  the  active  leader  of  a  hundred  thousand 
Catholic  trade-unionists  in  Belgium. 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT        345 

In  scope  and  tendency  the  deliberations  of  the  Semaines  so- 
ciales closely  resemble  the  Guide  social  or  the  Annee  socialc 
Internationale  of  the  Action  Populaire.  Above  all,  they  are 
concerned  with  the  development  of  industrial  organization  or 
unionism,  social  legislation,  the  protection  of  family  life,  the 
popularization  of  Christian  conceptions  of  the  dignity  of  labor, 
of  social  justice,  of  social  responsibilities. 

The  predominant  tendency  of  the  Semaines  sociales  has  been 
favorable  to  democratic  social  politics.  The  studies  pursued 
in  the  annual  conferences,  says  Etienne  Lamy,  have  prepared 
even  "  those  Catholics  who  are  most  distrustful  of  the  state  " 
to  recognize  the  necessity  of  labor  legislation,  such  as  measures 
against  child  labor,  restriction  of  the  employment  of  women, 
protection  of  the  Sunday  holiday.  It  was  only  natural  thai 
many  Catholics  should  distrust  state  intervention  in  economic 
questions,  since  state  intervention  in  religious  questions  had 
been  so  hostile  and  illiberal  toward  the  Church.  "  It  was  by 
becoming  atheist  that  the  state  became  anti-social."  Neverthe- 
less, the  idea  of  the  social  duties  of  the  state  had  triumphed, 
and  the  Social  Catholics  in  the  Semaines  sociales  had  even 
approved  in  principle  certain  of  the  reforms  proposed  by  the 
Socialists.  However,  unlike  the  Socialists,  the  Catholics  de- 
sired to  increase  the  autonomy  and  authority  of  industrial  or- 
ganizations, rather  than  to  centralize  all  the  functions  of  social 
supervision  in  the  national  government.1052 

Lamy's  statement  that  the  Semaines  sociales  had  converted 
even  the  most  anti-interventionist  Catholics  to  the  cause  of  social 
legislation  is  probably  an  exaggeration.  Certain  it  is,  at  any 
rate,  that  from  the  more  conservative  wing  protests  arose 
against  the  too  radical  spirit  of  the  congresses.  For  example, 
in  La  Reforme  sociale,  the  organ  of  Le  Play's  disciples,  we  find 
an  article  by  Eugene  Rostand,  a  Catholic  and  former  president 
of  the  Society  of  Social  Economy,  rebuking  the  socialistic 
tendencies  manifested  by  the  "  young  Catholics  "  in  the  Semaine 
sociale  of  Bordeaux  (1909).  Prefacing  his  rebuke  with  an 
expression  of  sympathy  for  the  generous  intentions  of  the 
younger  Social  Catholics,  Rostand  endeavored  "  to  put  these 


346  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

sincere  and  ardent  spirits  on  their  guard  against  an  orientation 
which  is  false  in  itself  and  dangerous  to  the  cause  to  which 
they  are  devoted."  There  was  an  alarming  drift,  he  asserted, 
towards  "  interventionism  and  state  socialism."  Catholics  who 
denounced  capitalism  were  playing  into  the  hands  of  the  Social- 
ists and  Syndicalists.  To  apply  Christ's  social  teachings  and 
moral  maxims  to  modern  society,  as  the  radical  Social  Catholics 
were  doing,  was  to  commit  a  grievous  fallacy.  Moreover, — 
and  here  Rostand  proceeds  to  use  the  very  method  of  argu- 
ment he  has  just  condemned, —  Jesus  sanctioned  inequality 
among  men  as  well  as  the  right  of  property.  Catholics,  he 
concluded,  should  beware  of  social  legislation,  although  excep- 
tions might  be  made  in  favor  of  legislation  to  enforce  the 
Sunday  holiday,  encourage  thrift,  protect  women  and  children, 
combat  alcoholism,  and  foster  the  acquisition  of  homes  by 
workingmen.1053 

The  Semaines  societies,  we  may  conclude,  are  far  from  pro- 
ducing, at  present,  any  genuine  unanimity  among  the  various 
Catholic  groups  interested  in  social  reform.  The  conservatives 
still  attack  the  radicals.  But  the  fact  that  all  take  part  in  the 
discussions,  and  in  an  amicable  spirit,  is  perhaps  a  circum- 
stance favorable  to  the  increase  of  harmony,  and  to  the  further 
spread  of  the  strongly  positive  doctrine  of  the  genuine  Social 
Catholics.  Even  though  among  conservative  economists  op- 
position to  that  doctrine  may  continue  to  be  encountered,  the 
fact  is  indisputable  that  the  Semaines  are  rapidly  popularizing 
among  the  Catholic  clergy  and  laity,  and  above  all  among  the 
intellectuals  of  the  rising  generation,  a  constructive  conception 
of  social  reform.  And  this  service  is  the  more  significant 
because  the  purpose  of  the  instruction  at  'the  Semaines  is  to 
equip  Catholic  leaders  not  merely  with  general  theories  and 
principles,  but  also  with  specific  knowledge  and  practical  infor- 
mation, to  the  end  that  they  may  be  prepared  for  practical 
service  in  behalf  of  labor  reform  and  social  welfare.  This 
purpose  explains  the  brief  but  expressive  phrase  chosen  as  the 
motto  of  the  Semaines  sociales:  "  Science  for  Action,"  —  "La 
Science  pour  V Action." 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT       347 

THE  YOUNG  MEN'S  CATHOLIC  ASSOCIATION 

The  French  Young  Men's  Catholic  Association  (the  A.  C. 
J.  F.  or  Association  Catholique  de  la  Jeunesse  Frangaise}, 
another  important  organization  participating  in  the  contem- 
porary Social  Catholic  movement,  serves  in  some  sort  as  a 
recruiting  bureau  for  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  the  Action 
Populaire,  and  the  Semaines  societies.  It  contributes  the  en- 
thusiasm and  the  progressive  spirit  of  youth  to  the  social  move- 
ment. 

It  was  precisely  for  this  role  that  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  was  founded, 
in  1886,  by  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  as  an  offshoot  of  or  rather 
as  a  preparatory  school  for  the  Association  of  Catholic  Work- 
ingmen's  Clubs.  The  A.  C.  J.  F.  is  therefore  a  lineal  descend- 
ant of  the  Workingmen's  Clubs  Association,  which  is  universally 
acknowledged  as  the  parent  organization  of  the  contemporary 
Social  Catholic  Movement  in  France. 

In  March  of  1886,  Robert  de  Roquefeuil  and  five  other  young 
men  gathered  at  the  Paris  office  of  the  workingmen's  clubs. 
Count  Albert  de  Mun,  father  of  the  workingmen's  clubs,  there 
addressed  them,  describing  his  dream  of  a  great  army  of 
young  men,  organized  in  local  groups,  united  by  a  central  com- 
mittee, devoted  to  the  mission  of  reforming  society  in  accord- 
ance with  Christian  principles.  Inspired  by  the  veteran  lead- 
er's enthusiasm,  the  six  youths  then  and  there  formed  the 
Association  Catholique  de  la  Jeunesse  Frangaise,  a  national 
association  with  six  members.1054 

Enthusiasm  was  theirs  if  nothing  more.  And  enthusiasm 
soon  bore  fruit.  In  the  short  space  of  fourteen  months  the 
association  of  six  members  had  become  a  federation  of  twenty 
local  groups,  embracing  a  thousand  members.  The  first  general 
convention,  held  in  May,  1887,  at  Angers,  received  the  valuable 
encouragement  of  Mgr.  Freppel,  the  local  bishop.  The  sec- 
ond general  assembly,  at  Paris,  in  June,  1889,  was  patronized 
by  Cardinal  Richard  and  by  Leon  Harmel,  the  wealthy  manu- 
facturer who  had  organized  his  textile  mills  on  the  guild  model. 
The  third  convention,  at  Lyons,  in  April,  1891,  represented 


348  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

sixty  groups.  In  June  of  that  year  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  was  power- 
ful enough  to  organize  a  meeting  of  8,000  young  men  at  Notre 
Dame;  in  September,  to  organize  a  pilgrimage  of  1,500  to 
Rome,  where  the  tricolor  flag  of  the  Association  was  blessed 
by  the  pope.  Year  by  year  the  Association  grew  in  numbers 
and  its  general  conventions  gained  in  importance.  At  the  con- 
vention of  Besanc,on,  for  example,  in  1898,  the  list  of  speakers 
included  the  most  brilliant  intellectual  and  political  leaders  of 
Catholic  France:  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  deputy  and  orator, 
Leon  Harmel,  apostle  of  the  guild  idea  and  leader  of  the  Chris- 
tian Democrats,  Abbe  Lemire,  initiator  of  the  workingmen's 
gardens  movement  and  one  of  the  most  active  advocates  of 
social  reform  to  be  found  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  Brune- 
tiere,  a  convert  to  Catholicism  from  positivism  whose  literary 
genius  had  won  him  an  international  reputation,  and  Social 
Catholic  writers  such  as  Georges  Goyau,  Fonsegrive,  and  Sava- 
tier.  At  the  time  of  its  convention  at  Chalon-sur-Saone,  May, 
1903,  the  Association  comprised  631  groups  and  about  30,000 
members.  Less  than  a  year  later,  the  number  of  local  groups 
had  increased  to  850.  Thus  the  Association  continued  to  ex- 
pand.1055 

Thanks  to  the  large  autonomy  which  they  enjoy,  the  local 
branches  have  developed  a  remarkable  diversity  of  character. 
There  are  rural  groups  and  urban  groups.  Some  are  simply 
study  clubs,  others  are  very  active  in  social  welfare  work,  in 
the  charities  of  the  Saint  Vincent  de  Paul  Society,  in  forming 
rural  credit  societies,  in  founding  trade-unions,  in  social  secre- 
tariats. Some  groups  are  composed  of  young  aristocrats  and 
bourgeois,  others  of  peasants,  others  of  young  laborers,  others 
of  clerks,  others  of  college  students.  The  original  type  was 
essentially  bourgeois.  Its  members  were  young  men  of  the 
middle  and  upper  classes,  just  finishing  their  collegiate  work, 
or  entering  the  professions,  who  gathered  regularly  for  the  dis- 
cussion of  science,  literature,  art,  philosophy,  religion, —  of 
everything  except  politics, —  but,  above  all,  of  social  questions. 
Since  1891,  and  more  especially  since  1902,  the  association  has 
taken  on  a  less  bourgeois  character,  and  made  rapid  headway 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT        349 

among  the  peasants  and  also  among  the  laborers,  especially,  in 
the  latter  category,  among  the  miners  and  metallurgical  work- 
ers. At  about  the  close  of  the  year  1903,  it  was  calculated  that 
the  farmers'  groups  represented  45  per  cent.,  the  laborers' 
groups  35  per  cent.,  and  the  others  (clerks,  students,  bourgeois) 
20  per  cent,  of  the  total.1056 

From  its  birth,  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  was  in  the  truest  sense  of  the 
word  a  child  of  the  Association  of  Catholic  Workingmen's 
Clubs,  that  enterprise  in  which  Count  Albert  de  Mun  and 
Marquis  de  La  Tour  du  Pin,  with  their  associates  and  dis- 
ciples, had  constituted  the  original  nucleus  of  the  contemporary 
French  Social  Catholic  Movement.  Alexandre  Souriac,  vice- 
president  of  the  A.  C.  J.  F.,  writing  in  the  year  1913,  gave  the 
clearest  possible  proof  that  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  continues  to  regard 
itself, —  in  his  words, —  as  the  "  daughter  of  the  Association  of 
Clubs."  1057  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  for  his  part,  wrote  in  1903 
that  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  was  founded  "  in  close  agreement  with  the 
principles  and  ideas  of  the  Association  of  Catholic  Working- 
men's  Clubs."  lon8  De  Mun,  it  may  be  remarked,  took  a  pater- 
nal interest  in  the  younger  organization ;  he  was  the  most 
welcome  of  all  orators  at  its  conventions  and  banquets,  and 
when  his  ill  health  forbade  him  to  speak  on  such  an  occasion, 
he  sent  a  long  letter  to  be  read  in  lieu  of  an  address.1059 

The  social  ideas  of  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  are  the  ideas  of  the  Social 
Catholic  movement  with  which  the  reader  is  already  familiar. 
Alexandre  Souriac,  as  spokesman  of  the  association,  in  1913, 
contributed  an  article  to  the  Reforme  sociale,  summarizing  these 
ideas  under  three  general  headings.  In  the  first  place,  comes 
the  family,  the  primary  unit  of  society.  The  A.  C.  J.  F.  advo- 
cates a  series  of  reforms,  such  as  the  legal  interdiction  of  night- 
work,  the  legal  enforcement  of  the  Sunday  holiday,  the  repre- 
sentation of  family  interests  in  municipal  councils,  and  legisla- 
tion enabling  each  family  to  acquire  an  inalienable  "  family 
patrimony,"  and  other  measures  calculated  to  promote  family 
life  and  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  the  workingman's  home 
by  economic  causes. 

In  the  second  place,  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  believes  in  the  scheme  of 


THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

industrial  unionism, —  the  interorganization  of  labor  and  capi- 
tal,—  advocated  by  de  Mun  and  other  Social  Catholics.  The 
first  step  in  this  direction  is  the  creation  of  trade  unions  (only 
a  minority  of  the  French  workingmen  are  unionized,  one  should 
remember),  and  so  far  as  possible  the  establishment  of  mixed 
boards  or  other  organizations  bringing  capital  and  labor  to- 
gether. The  government  should  foster  the  movement  toward 
trade  organization  and  should  recognize  the  unions  as  the  rep- 
resentatives of  trade  interests.  The  final  step  is  the  extension 
of  the  role  of  the  trade  organizations  to  include  such  matters  as 
prevention  of  unemployment,  provision  of  old-age  pensions, 
management  of  social  insurance,  regulation  of  shop  conditions 
and  hours  of  labor,  determination  of  wages. 

Thirdly,  as  regards  the  political  aspect  of  social  reform,  the 
A.  C.  J.  F.  favors  much  the  same  program  as  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party:  social  legislation,  increasing  recognition  of  or- 
ganized economic  interests,  decentralization,  etc.  Religious 
policy  is  regarded  as  having  an  important  connection  with 
social  policy,  because  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  considers  Christian  prin- 
ciples such  as  charity,  fraternity,  class  conciliation,  social 
justice,  and  obedience  to  authority  as  indispensable  bases  of 
social  reform.  It  is  declared,  therefore,  that  the  state  should 
adopt  an  attitude  friendly  rather  than  hostile  to  the  Church.1060 

It  was  remarked,  at  the  beginning  of  this  section,  that  the 
A.  C.  J.  F.  served  as  a  recruiting  bureau  for  the  Action  Popu- 
laire,  the  Semaines  so  dales,  and  the  Popular  Liberal  Party. 
By  way  of  conclusion,  it  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  return 
to  this  assertion,  for  it  explains  the  chief  significance  of  the 
organization.  A  few  illustrations  will  serve  to  bring  out  the 
point  more  forcibly.  One  of  the  most  valuable  members  of 
the  staff  of  the  Action  Populaire  is  Joseph  Zamanski,  who,  with 
the  collaboration  of  Abbe  Desbuquois  (director  of  the  Action 
Populaire}  edits  the  most  important  organ  of  that  organization 
and  of  the  French  Social  Catholic  movement, —  Le  Mouvement 
social.  This  brilliant  young  sociologist  served  his  apprentice- 
ship in  the  A.  C.  J.  F. ;  he  was  a  member  of  its  executive  com- 
mittee at  one  time.  One  of  the  incidents  of  his  career  in  the 


CONTEMPORARY  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT        351 

A.  C.  J.  F.  will  bear  repetition.  At  a  time  when  the  apaches 
had  taken  a  fancy  to  invade  the  Paris  churches  in  ruffianly 
fashion,  Zamanski  with  other  members  of  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  fought 
off  the  invaders  and  came  away  bleeding  and  bedraggled,  but 
victorious.1061 

Zamanski  serves  likewise  as  a  link  between  the  A.  C.  J.  F. 
and  the  Semaines  sociales,  for  he  has  been  a  prominent  lecturer 
in  the  more  recent  sessions  of  the  Semaines.  At  the  Semaine 
of  1911  he  delivered  lectures  on  "  How  to  realize  justice  in  the 
wage-contract "  and  on  "  Labor  legislation  in  France  " ;  at  the 
Semaine  of  1912  he  lectured  on  "  the  employment  of  women  "; 
at  the  Semaine  of  1913,  on  "the  responsibility  of  labor/' 1062 

Jean  Lerolle,  at  one  time  president  of  the  A.  C.  J.  F.,  is 
another  personal  link  with  the  Semaines  sociales.  In  1910  he 
discussed  the  employment  of  children  at  night;  in  1911,  "the 
question  of  labor";  in  1912,  "the  family  and  the  problem  of 
pensions  ";  in  1913,  "  the  legal  protection  of  children."  1063 

To  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  also,  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  has  con- 
tributed energetic  and  able  recruits.  Jean  Lerolle,  whose  name 
has  just  been  mentioned,  became  in  1912  a  member  of  the  par- 
liamentary group  of  that  party,  as  deputy  from  the  /th  arron- 
dissement  of  Paris.  Henri  Bazire,  who  preceded  Lerolle  as 
president  of  the  A.  C.  J.  F.,  took  an  active  part  in  the  national 
conventions  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  and  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  executive  committee  of  the  party.1064  Alexandre 
Souriac,  another  officer  of  the  A.  C.  J.  F.,  was  selected  to  pre- 
pare very  important  reports  for  the  party  conventions  of  1906 
and  1907. 1065 

With  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  in  fact,  the  relations  of  the 
A.  C.  J.  F.  have  been  extremely  cordial.  Count  Albert  de  Mun, 
to  whose  inspiration  the  foundation  of  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  was 
due,  took  so  active  an  interest  in  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  of 
which  he  was  vice-president,  that  he  urged  the  former  associa- 
tion to  aid  the  latter.  The  Popular  Liberal  Party,  he  told 
the  A.  C.  J.  F.,  aimed  to  unite  all  those  "  who  sincerely  wished 
to  give  satisfaction,  by  means  of  honestly  prepared  reforms, 
to  the  legitimate  demands  of  the  workingmen,  and  to  aid 


352  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

them  to  shake  off,  by  the  strength  of  trade  organization,  the 
yoke  of  Socialist  trade  unions."  Such  a  program,  he  declared, 
agreed  with  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  A.  C.  J.  F.,  and 
deserved  the  latter's  enthusiastic  support.1066  Jacques  Piou, 
president  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  was  invited  to  address 
the  convention  of  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  at  Chalon-sur-Saone,  May  10, 
1903 ;  the  frantic  applause  with  which  the  convention  approved 
his  stirring  appeal  for  aid  in  the  struggle  which  his  party  was 
waging  left  room  for  no  doubt  that  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  could  be 
Counted  upon  to  give  the  party  the  most  ardent  support.1067 


CHAPTER  XI 
DISSIDENT  GROUPS 

CONSIDERED  collectively,  the  Association  of  Catholic  Work- 
ingmen's  Clubs,  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  the  Action  Popu- 
laire,  the  Semaines  sociales,  and  the  Young  Men's  Catholic 
Association  might  be  considered  as  representing  what  has  been 
called  the  "  Social  Catholic  School."  Theirs  is  a  fairly  clear- 
cut  and  distinctly  original  program  of  social  politics,  a  pro- 
gram offering  three  converging  methods  for  the  solution  of  the 
modern  labor  problem,  namely,  first,  social  legislation  to  pro- 
tect the  workingman  against  the  abuses  of  the  modern  indus- 
trial system  and  to  foster  industrial  organization ;  second,  the 
unionization  of  labor  and  the  inter-organization  of  labor  and 
capital  on  something  resembling  the  guild  plan,  to  the  end  that 
ultimately  the  organized  trades  may  take  over  from  the  state, 
in  large  part,  the  duties  of  labor  legislation  and  social  insur- 
ance; third,  Christian  moral  action  to  strengthen  the  spirit  of 
charity,  justice,  fraternity,  as  opposed  to  avarice  and  social 
indifference  on  the  part  of  capitalists  and  materialism  and 
violence  on  the  part  of  the  proletariat. 

Now  the  distinguishing  feature  of  the  Social  Catholic  School 
is  that  while  asserting  most  vigorously  both  the  need  of  social 
legislation  and  the  need  of  trade  organization,  it  fits  the  two 
into  a  balanced  scheme  of  society  compatible  with  the  main- 
tenance of  private  property  and  a  considerable  measure  of  in- 
dividual liberty.  But  it  is  very  easy  by  overemphasizing  one 
element  of  this  program  to  neglect  the  others  and  destroy  the 
equilibrium.  By  stressing  the  need  of  social  legislation,  that  is, 
of  state  intervention,  one  arrives  at  state  socialism  pure  and 
simple.  By  exaggerating  the  case  for  trade  organization,  one 
passes  over  to  revolutionary  syndicalism.  By  exalting  pri- 

35.3 


354  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

vate  property  and  liberty  one  may  return  to  economic  Liberal- 
ism or  laissez-faire  individualism. 

The  so-called  "  Social  Catholic "  organizations  which  in- 
herit the  spirit  of  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  maintain  the  nice 
equilibrium  between  the  three  ideas,  and  yet  put  much  stress 
on  all.  Of  these  organizations  we  have  completed  our  survey. 
It  now  remains  to  glance  at  some  of  the  groups  which  have 
felt  the  influence  of  the  Social  Catholic  school,  but  differ  from 
that  school  because  they  do  not  maintain  the  balance  between 
its  three  principles.  Such  a  survey  of  what  might  be  styled  — 
in  no  derogatory  sense  —  the  "  heretical "  schools,  is  an  essen- 
tial part  of  this  study,  for  otherwise  it  would  be  impossible  to 
comprehend  either  the  difficulties  with  which  the  Social  Cath- 
olic movement  is  confronted  or  the  full  measure  of  the  move- 
ment's influence. 

THE  "  SOCIAL  REFORM  "  SCHOOL 

The  "  Social  Reform "  School  is  one  of  the  conservative 
Catholic  groups  which  tends  to  diverge  from  the  Social  Cath- 
olic doctrine  on  the  issue  of  social  legislation.  The  group,  as  a 
whole,  is  more  timid  than  are  the  genuine  Social  Catholics 
in  asserting  the  necessity  of  state  intervention  in  labor  ques- 
tions. Hence,  by  a  logical  connection  of  ideas,  the  thesis  of 
trade  organization  is  also  weakened,  because  the  group  is  un- 
willing that  the  state  should  make  such  organization  in  any 
sense  compulsory.  Moral  action,  therefore,  becomes  the  prin- 
cipal factor  in  social  reform,  and  the  rights  of  property  and 
liberty  are  exalted.  The  divergency,  however,  is  not  so  wide 
as  to  set  an  impassable  gulf  between  the  "  Social  Reform  " 
School  and  the  Social  Catholic  School ;  on  the  contrary,  the  two 
schools  are  very  cordially  and  intimately  associated  and  the 
influence  of  the  latter  is  so  strongly  felt  in  the  former  that  a 
future  complete  agreement  is  not  at  all  beyond  the  range  of 
probability. 

Historically,  the  "  Social  Reform  "  and  the  Social  Catholic 
schools  are  closely  related.  The  former  was  founded  by  Le 
Play,  the  eminent  Catholic  conservative  sociologist  of  the  Sec- 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  355 

ond  Empire,1068  and  embraces  his  most  faithful  disciples.  The 
latter,  as  the  reader  will  doubtless  remember,  was  at  the  outset 
merely  an  enterprise  of  popular  propaganda,  without  a  distinct 
doctrine  of  its  own,  and  much  under  the  influence  of  Le  Play, 
whom  it  venerated  as  the  greatest  French  master  of  Catholic 
social  economy.  The  Social  Catholic  School,  in  its  early  years, 
regarded  itself  not  as  a  rival  or  an  opponent  of  the  "  Social 
Reform  "  School,  but  as  a  co-worker,  primarily  concerned  with 
practical  action  among  the  masses,  while  the  "  Social  Reform  " 
School  was  more  concerned  with  the  study  of  economic  phe- 
nomena and  with  a  more  scholarly  kind  of  propaganda.  It  was 
only  as  the  Social  Catholics,  with  the  progress  of  their  activity, 
gradually  developed  a  doctrine  of  their  own,  that  the  two 
schools  began  to  diverge.1069 

At  the  present  time,  the  "  Social  Reform  "  School,  as  we  have 
designated  it,  is  represented  by  the  Society  of  Social  Economy 
(La  Societe  d'fLconomie  Sociale)  and  the  Unions  of  Social 
Peace  (Unions  de  la  Paix  Sociale).  The  former  is  a  learned 
society  founded  by  Le  Play,  in  1856,  for  the  scientific  study  of 
social  institutions  by  the  method  of  minute  comparative  obser- 
vation, particularly  observation  of  typical  families, —  a  method 
which  he  had  introduced.  The  Society  holds  annual  assem- 
blies and  conducts  deliberative  sessions  every  winter.  True  to 
the  spirit  of  its  founder,  it  is  interested  in  encouraging  the 
inductive  or  empirical  method  of  sociology,  and  in  questions 
of  social  reform.  It  is  essentially  a  learned  body,  without  a 
definite  practical  program  of  social  reform ;  but  its  studies 
tend  to  foster  interest  in  social  problems  and  their  proposed 
solutions.  Its  president,  in  1914,  was  Paul  Nourrisson,  a  law- 
yer; its  secretary-general,  F.  Lepelletier,  professor  of  political 
economy  in  the  Faculte  libre  de  droit  de  Paris.  Among  its 
vice-presidents,  we  find  Georges  Blondel,  professor  at  the  Ecole 
des  Sciences  Politiques,  who  is  already  familiar  to  us  as  a 
lecturer  at  the  Semaines  sociales.  On  the  council  were  men  like 
Bechaux,  honorary  professor  of  political  economy  at  Lille, 
Brants,  professor  of  political  economy  at  Louvain,  Hubert- 
Valleroux,  a  lawyer,  Honore,  manager  of  the  big  department 


356  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

store  of  the  Louvre,  Paul  Bourget,  and  Martin-Saint-Leon, 
historian  of  the  guilds  and  lecturer  at  the  Semaines  so  dales. 
Glancing  through  the  list  of  members,  one  comes,  perhaps  with 
some  surprise,  to  the  name  of  Jacques  Piou,  president  of  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party.  That  the  leader  of  a  party  with  so 
radical  a  program  of  social  legislation  should  belong  to  the 
Society  is  not,  on  second  thought,  astonishing.  The  Society, 
it  must  be  remembered,  is  primarily  a  learned  body  rather  than 
a  propagandist  organization  with  a  definite  program.1070 

The  Unions  of  Social  Peace,  on  the  other  hand,  were  dis- 
tinctly propagandist.  They  were  founded  by  Le  Play  in  1872, 
in  the  midst  of  the  reaction  against  the  Commune  and  against 
socialism, —  a  reaction  which  they  endeavored  to  strengthen. 
Their  purpose  to  this  day  remains  much  the  same:  to  conduct 
propaganda  against  revolutionary  social  doctrines,  to  preach 
social  conciliation,  moral  regeneration,  and  social  peace.  They 
strive 

to  propagate  and  put  into  practice  the  doctrines  which  the  School 
of  Social  Peace  deduces  from  the  methodical  study  of  facts.  Dis- 
carding all  irritating  polemic,  they  appeal,  irrespective  of  parties, 
to  all  men  of  good  faith  who  desire  to  assure  the  respect  of  the  law 
of  God  and  the  reign  of  social  peace.  It  is  by  the  experience  of 
the  past  and  the  study  of  the  present  that  the  Unions  strive  to 
illuminate  the  essential  conditions  for  the  maintenance  of  stability 
in  the  family  and  harmony  in  the  factory.  To  restore  these  neces- 
sary conditions  wherever  they  have  been  disturbed  is  the  task  which 
they  assume,  to  the  end  that  by  their  modest  efforts  they  may  con- 
tribute to  the  prosperity  of  the  nation.1071 

It  is  the  duty  of  each  member  of  the  Unions  to  gain  one  new 
recruit  every  year,  and  to  distribute  Le  Play's  works  as  well 
as  the  other  literature  of  the  school.  The  propaganda  of  the 
Unions  is,  obviously,  somewhat  erudite. 

The  fortnightly  review  "  Social  Reform "  (La  Re  forme 
sociale)™72  founded  by  Le  Play  in  the  year  1881,  serves  as  the 
organ  of  the  Unions  of  Social  Peace  as  well  as  of  the  Society  of 
Social  Economy.  It  is  therefore  the  mouthpiece  of  the  school, 
and  for  that  reason  we  have  applied  its  name  to  the  school. 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  357 

The  name,  incidentally,  is  reminiscent  of  Le  Play's  famous 
work,  La  Re  for  me  sociale,  published  in  1864. 

In  an  article  on  the  social  ideas  of  the  Le  Play  or  "  Social 
Reform  "  School,  in  1913,  Frederic  Charpin,  secretary  of  the 
editorial  board  of  La  Reforme  sociale,  gives  a  concise  summary 
of  the  program.  The  program  is  based  on  the  following  se- 
quence of  fundamental  principles:  social  peace  is  the  criterion 
of  social  welfare ;  social  peace  may  be  secured  by  respect  of  the 
moral  law,  and,  notably,  of  the  Decalogue;  the  practical  ob- 
servance of  the  moral  law  necessitates  incessant  effort;  such 
effort  is  a  matter  of  free  human  volition;  hence,  a  large  measure 
of  freedom  is  desirable  although  absolute  individual  liberty  is 
to  be  repudiated.  These  principles,  as  well  as  their  practical 
applications,  are  put  forward  as  the  results  of  scientific  socio- 
logical observation  and  inductive  reasoning. 

The  practical  applications  may  be  grouped  under  four  heads. 
First,  the  family.  The  family,  in  the  view  of  Le  Play's  dis- 
ciples, is  the  most  important  social  unit;  to  preserve  and 
strengthen  it  must  be  the  primary  aim  of  all  reform.  The  law 
and  the  custom  of  the  equal  division  of  inheritances  are  re- 
garded as  prejudicial  to  the  family,  because  they  bring  about  the 
infinite  subdivision  of  family  inheritances ;  when  a  small  prop- 
erty is  divided  among  numerous  heirs  it  is  destroyed,  because 
each  portion  is  too  small  to  provide  a  workable  farm.  Much 
to  be  preferred  would  be  a  system  in  which  family  properties 
are  maintained  intact,  passing  from  generation  to  generation 
in  lineal  descent,  and  serving  as  a  material  basis  for  family 
continuity.  In  the  interest  of  the  family,  Charpin  continues, 
the  principle  of  private  property  must  be  maintained  inviolate, 
for  collectivism  would  imperil  the  family.  Thrift  should  be 
encouraged,  housing  schemes  promoted,  agriculture  fostered, 
and  the  employment  of  women  and  children  in  industry  re- 
stricted ; —  all  of  these  measures,  it  is  believed,  will  conduce  to 
the  greater  stability  of  family  life.  Finally,  the  campaign  in 
favor  of  the  bien  de  famille  (that  is,  the  acquisition  of  a  small 
but  virtually  inalienable  patrimony  by  every  family)  is  warmly 
endorsed. 


358  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

In  the  second  place,  communal  and  regional  autonomy  should 
be  developed.  This  point  is  perhaps  more  political  than  social 
in  character,  but  it  has  a  bearing  on  the  social  question.  De- 
centralization of  government  is  considered  to  be  a  safeguard 
against  the  socialistic  tendencies  of  the  modern  national  state. 
In  advocating  a  revival  of  local  self-government  and  "  regional- 
ism "  Le  Play  was  a  forerunner  of  the  important  contemporary 
<4  regionalist "  movement  in  France,  and  his  disciples  are  found 
in  the  ranks  of  that  movement. 

In  the  third  place,  the  trade-union  movement  is  to  be  pro- 
moted and  diverted  from  dangerous  paths.  Le  Play,  it  will 
be  remembered,  had  been  decidedly  sceptical  of  the  value  of 
trade-unionism.  Charpin  believes  that  had  the  master  lived 
longer,  he  would  have  favored  the  trade  unions.  Even  Charpin, 
however,  shows  some  traces  of  Le  Play's  distrust  of  labor 
unions.  The  labor  unions,  he  insists,  must  be  free  and  volun- 
tary. They  must  have  no  power  or  authority  over  non-mem- 
bers. Perhaps  gradually  they  may  develop  a  sort  of  customary 
law,  an  unwritten  law,  respecting  wages,  the  limitation  of  the 
working  day,  shop  regulations,  etc.;  they  may  assume  charge 
of  employment  bureaus,  and  may  develop  mutual  and  co- 
operative societies.  But  the  trade  union  must  not  be  given  a 
predominant  place  in  the  social  structure,  nor  must  it  over- 
shadow the  family  in  importance,  or  tend  to  promote  the  re- 
placement of  private  by  collective  property.  In  short,  the 
"  Social  Reform  "  School  reproduces  the  Social  Catholic  doc- 
trine of  trade  organization,  but  with  many  misgivings  and 
reservations. 

In  the  fourth  place,  as  regards  social  legislation,  Charpin's 
program  is  more  negative  than  positive.  State  intervention  in 
labor  questions  is  to  be  admitted  only  as  a  last  resort.  "  We 
do  not  deny  the  necessity,"  says  Charpin,  of  state  intervention 
"  in  certain  cases  —  few  in  number  —  where,  to  use  Lacor- 
daire's  words,  '  it  is  liberty  which  oppresses  and  law  which 
emancipates.'  But  it  is  a  last  resort  [nn  pis-alter] ."  1073 

In  its  attitude  toward  Social  Catholic  organizations  such  as 
the  Action  Populaire  and  the  Semaines  societies,  toward  the 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  359 

Popular  Liberal  Party,  and  toward  Social  Catholic  writers,  La 
Reforme  sociale  is  extremely  friendly,  except  when  its  fear  of 
socialistic  tendencies  is  aroused.  Thus  in  1905,  on  the  eve 
of  a  general  election,  La  Reforme  sociale  commented  very  fa- 
vorably upon  the  Popular  Liberal  Party  as  an  organization 
claiming  the  allegiance  of  "  all  those  who  desire  honest  elections 
and  a  fair  government " ;  but  it  was  the  religious  and  political, 
rather  than  the  social  program  of  the  party  which  earned  La 
Reforme  sociale's  commendation.1074  The  Action  Populaire  is 
also  regarded  with  friendly  eye;  its  publications  are  favorably 
reviewed ;  and  prominent  members  of  the  "  Social  Reform  " 
group  have  contributed  pamphlets  to  the  Action  Populaire's 
series.1075 

As  regards  the  Semaines  sociales,  it  has  already  been  observed 
that  members  of  the  "  Social  Reform  "  group  frequently  par- 
ticipate in  these  conventions.  La  Reforme  sociale  publishes 
enthusiastic  accounts  of  the  Semaines  sociales,  but  it  also  chides 
the  lecturers  who  are  too  radical  in  their  theories.1076 

Similarly  in  reviewing  books  of  Social  Catholic  tendency  La 
Reforme  sociale  finds  it  possible  to  extend  cordial  personal  com- 
pliments with  one  hand  while  administering  doctrinal  reproof 
with  the  other.  Thus  Lepelletier,  a  member  of  the  editorial 
board,  in  reviewing  a  new  edition  of  Professor  Paul  Pic's 
Traite  elementaire  de  legislation  indiistrielle ,  praises  Professor 
Pic's  scholarship  and  accuracy  in  the  highest  terms,  but  remarks 
that  he  is  at  times  too  much  inclined  toward  state  interven- 
tion.1077 

In  fact,  La  Reforme  sociale  again  and  again  voices  the  cha- 
grin of  an  obsolescent  economic  philosophy  confronted  by  a 
seemingly  irresistible  modern  tendency  towards  radical  social 
legislation.  Hubert- Valleroux,  writing  on  "  The  New  Spirit 
and  Labor  Legislation,"  disconsolately  remarks : 

Those  of  my  colleagues  who  are  as  old  as  I,  may  remember  the 
time  —  long  past,  to  be  sure,  but  not  to  be  thought  of  without 
emotion, —  when  we  had  the  cult  of  liberty ;  it  was  a  goddess  whom 
we  loved  to  salute  and  salute  passionately.  .  .  .  Today  all  is 
changed :  that  liberty  which  we  had  been  accustomed  to  venerate 


360  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

is  treated  with  the  utmost  contempt ;  it  is  a  thing  of  the  past,  a 
superannuated  conception,  an  idea  which  has  had  its  day. 

The  popular  idea  nowadays,  he  continues,  is  mass  despotism. 
That  is  the  new  spirit.1078 

The  same  hostility  toward  state  intervention  determines  the 
attitude  of  men  like  Hubert- Valleroux  toward  trade-union  or- 
ganization. He  professes  to  be  a  friend  of  the  trade-union 
movement  but  he  dislikes  anything  smacking  of  obligatory 
membership  or  the  closed  shop.  The  trade  unions  must  be 
entirely  free  and  voluntary.  Moreover,  he  would  make  the 
union  liable  for  damages.  Any  person,  whether  a  member  or 
not,  if  injured  by  the  action  of  a  union,  and  notably  any  person 
deprived  of  employment  by  the  action  of  the  union,  should 
have  the  right  to  sue  for  damages.  For  such  damages  the 
property  of  the  union  and  the  personal  property  of  its  officials 
should  be  held  as  security.  In  case  of  non-payment,  the  union 
might  be  dissolved  by  the  courts.  Such  a  law  would,  it  is 
obvious,  be  a  very  serious  handicap  to  the  trade-union  move- 
ments. It  is  inspired  by  a  spirit  of  distrust.1079 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  in  the  "  Social  Reform  " 
School  there  is  an  influential  element  which  still  cherishes  the 
ideal  of  economic  liberty  and  retreats  only  with  the  greatest 
resistance  before  "  the  rising  tide "  of  social  legislation.  As 
regards  social  legislation  and  regarding  trade-unionism  as  well, 
its  spirit  is  more  often  critical  and  negative  than  positive  and 
constructive.  Perhaps  the  negative  tendency  has  been  over- 
emphasized in  the  foregoing  paragraphs.  If  so,  it  is  because 
we  desired  to  bring  out  more  clearly  the  dissidence  between  the 
"  Social  Reform  "  School  and  the  Social  Catholic  School.  And 
perhaps  the  unfairness  of  this  sketch  may  be  partially  cor- 
rected by  reminding  the  reader  that,  after  all,  many  members 
of  the  "  Social  Reform "  School  are  more  inclined  toward 
Count  de  Mun's  view  of  social  legislation  and  labor  organiza- 
tion than  toward  the  views  of  Hubert- Valleroux. 

Some  accept  almost  all  of  the  Social  Catholic  program, 
others  admit  only  a  small  part.  Thus  one  might  say  that  the 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  361 

"  Social  Reform  "  school  represents  Social  Catholicism  diluted 
with  anti-interventionist  Liberalism.  The  diluting  element,  be- 
ing negative,  and  opposed  to  the  spirit  of  the  age,  tends  to  de- 
crease in  potency;  the  positive  element  of  Social  Catholicism 
tends  to  become  stronger.  Without  indulging  in  dangerous 
prophecy,  the  opinion  may  be  hazarded  that  the  "  Social  Re- 
form "  School  will  gradually  be  more  and  more  permeated  by 
Social  Catholicism. 

A  MONARCHIST  GROUP:  L'AcxioN  FRANCAISE 

The  Action  Frangaise  is  a  second  group  which  seems  to  have 
been  influenced  in  some  measure  by  Social  Catholic  ideas,  but 
by  overemphasizing  some  and  underemphasizing  others  diverges 
far  more  radically  than  the  "  Social  Reform  "  School  from  the 
Social  Catholic  School.  Indeed,  so  far  does  the  divergence  go 
in  this  case,  that  the  Action  Frangaise  is  essentially  antagonistic 
to  organizations  like  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  which  accept 
the  Social  Catholic  program  in  its  entirety.  The  slight  simi- 
larity of  names,  Action  Frangaise  and  Action  Liberate  Populaire 
(Popular  Liberal  Party),  has  led  some  observers  of  French 
politics  to  confuse  these  two  organizations ;  no  error  could  be 
more  misleading. 

The  Action  Frangaise  originated  in  July,  1899,  in  the  midst 
of  the  Dreyfus  crisis,  as  a  group  whose  aim  was  to  react 
against  the  prevailing  tide  of  liberalism  and  anti-patriotism.  It 
was  reorganized  as  the  Ligue  d' Action  Frangaise  in  I9O5,1080 
but  never  succeeded  in  becoming  much  more  than  a  small  coterie 
of  reactionary  aristocrats  and  chauvinistic  intellectuals.  Never- 
theless its  influence  has  been  relatively  large  and  its  official 
journal,  the  Action  Frangaise  (edited  by  Charles  Maurras  and 
Leon  Daudet)  has  been  sufficiently  clever  and  audacious  to 
wield  a  real  power  in  politics. 

Because  the  social  program  of  the  Action  Frangaise  is  inci- 
dental to  and  instrumental  to  its  political  program,  more  atten- 
tion must  be  paid  to  political  philosophy  than  in  the  case  of  the 
"  Social  Reform  "  School. 

By  a  brilliant  adaptation  of  modern  sociological  methods  of 


362  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

reasoning,  L' Action  Frangaise  transmutes  time-worn  concepts 
such  as  nationalism  and  monarchism  into  scientific  verities. 
Nationalism,  with  the  Action  Frangaise,  is  no  mere  sentiment. 
It  is  a  fact  demonstrated  by  sociology.  Scientific  observation 
shows  man  to  be  a  social  animal.  Being  social  he  has  need  of 
social  groups.  The  nation  is  the  supreme  social  group.  Na- 
tionalism is,  therefore,  natural  and  necessary.  National  patriot- 
ism should  take  precedence  over  all  other  political  issues. 

Applying  the  same  method  to  the  question  of  the  best  form 
of  government,  one  discovers,  first  of  all,  that  monarchy  is  the 
traditional  constitution  of  France.  To  this  fact,  the  theorists 
of  L' Action  Frangaise  attach  great  weight,  because,  in  their 
view,  for  a  nation  to  attempt  to  cut  itself  off  from  its  history, 
from  its  past  evolution,  is  as  absurd  as  for  a  plant  to  repudiate 
its  roots. 

Moreover,  assuming  national  greatness  to  be  a  supreme 
desideratum,  the  monarchical  form  of  government  again  appears 
to  be  vindicated  by  scientific  observation.  In  the  days  of  the 
monarchy,  France  enjoyed  glory  and  prestige,  whereas,  with  a 
republican  form  of  government,  France  was  compelled  to  suffer 
humiliation  and  to  accept  a  position  of  inferiority  vis-a-vis  the 
neighboring  monarchy  of  Germany.  The  clique  of  Jews,  Prot- 
estants, and  Free  Masons  who  had  obtained  control  over  the 
republican  government  were  paralyzing  France.  To  restore 
the  national  greatness  of  France,  one  must  overturn  that  clique 
and  reestablish  the  historic  monarchy. 

Moreover,  the  principle  of  republicanism  is  false.  Any 
elective  or  democratic  government  is.  forced,  by  its  very  nature, 
to  be  concerned,  above  all,  about  its  own  reelection,  whereas  an 
hereditary  monarch,  free  from  such  concerns,  is  inclined  to 
devote  himself  primarily  to  the  public  welfare. 

On  such  grounds,  the  leaders  of  L' Action  Frangaise  con- 
clude that  "  the  restoration  of  the  national  monarchy  is  for 
France  the  certain  condition  and  the  only  chance  of  salva- 
tion." 1081 

Not  for  France  alone,  but  for  the  Catholic  Church  in  France 
also,  monarchy  is  the  only  hope.  "  There  is  no  longer  any  pos- 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  363 

sible  security  for  the  Catholic  Church  in  France  outside  the 
monarchy."  1082  The  Republic,  the  leaders  of  the  Action  Fran- 
gaise  point  out,  has  proved  itself  hostile  to  the  Church.  The 
Monarchy,  on  the  other  hand,  is  traditionally  Catholic.  With 
the  restoration  of  the  king  to  his  throne,  Catholicism  should  be 
restored  to  its  place  as  the  historic  religion  of  France  and  en- 
dowed with  not  mere  liberty,  but  privileges.1083 

Because  it  promises  privileges  to  the  Church,  LJ 'Action  Fran- 
gaise  has  won  the  support  of  many  Catholics.  But  the  group  is 
not  by  origin  or  composition  essentially  Catholic.  Its  leader, 
Charles  Maurras,  a  former  disciple  of  Anatole  France,  is  cer- 
tainly not  a  devout  Catholic,  and  is  regarded  as  an  atheist  by 
some  French  churchmen. 

fitienne  Lamy,  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  Catholic  poli- 
ticians in  France,  once  attacked  the  Action  Franc aise  as  insin- 
cere in  its  clericalism.  For  the  leaders  of  L' Action  Frangaise 
clericalism  was  merely  a  matter  of  tactics.  "  For  them,  the 
Church  is  a  very  useful  tool  at  the  service  of  the  monarchy," 
he  said.  They  were  not  so  much  interested  in  defending  the 
Church  as  in  getting  Catholic  support. 

The  Action  Frangaise  strives  to  make  royalty  and  the  Church  one 
and  indivisible,  so  that  the  Church  may  see  her  salvation  only  in 
the  restoration  of  the  king,  and  the  Catholics  and  the  monarchists 
form  a  single  army. 

Such  tactics,  Lamy  indignantly  declared,  constituted  open  dis- 
obedience to  the  counsels  of  Leo  XIII  and  of  Pius  X.  By 
representing  Catholicism  and  monarchism  as  inseparable,  the 
Action  Frangaise  was  really  injuring  the  Church ;  it  was  keep- 
ing alive  a  harmful  cause  of  dissension  among  Catholics ;  it  was 
furnishing  the  anticlericals  with  a  pretext  for  attacking  the 
Church  as  the  enemy  of  the  Republic.1084 

The  attempt  of  the  Action  Frangaise  to  enlist  Catholicism  in 
the  support  of  monarchist  reaction  is  one  feature,  it  may  be 
remarked  in  passing,  which  marks  the  antagonism  between  this 
party  and  the  Action  Liberate  Populaire  or  Popular  Liberal 
Party.  The  latter,  as  was  shown  in  an  earlier  chapter,  accepts 


364  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

the  Republic,  forbids  its  adherents  to  conspire  against  the  exist- 
ing form  of  government,  and  desires  democratic  reform  of  the 
republican  constitution,  with  liberty  and  equality  before  the  law 
for  the  Church.  The  two  programs  —  monarchy  with  religious 
privilege,  and  republic  with  religious  liberty  —  are  diametri- 
cally opposed. 

Coming  at  last  to  the  social  theories  of  the  Action  Frangaise, 
we  may  observe  that  they,  quite  as  much  as  the  religious  policies 
of  the  party,  are  colored  by  the  political  preconception  in  favor 
of  monarchy.  To  the  workers  as  to  the  Catholics,  the  Action 
Frangaise  says,  "  you  have  nothing  to  gain  from  democracy, 
but  everything  to  hope  for  from  the  monarchy."  The  working 
classes,  say  the  party's  leaders,  are  the  principal  victims  of 
"the  democratic  mystification."  Democratic  social  legislation 
is  a  snare  and  delusion.  To  pass  laws  restricting  the  number 
of  hours  which  an  adult  laborer  may  work  is  to  "  offend  his 
dignity  and  arrest  his  activity."  The  state  should  intervene  as 
little  as  possible,  and  should  transfer,  so  far  as  possible,  all 
functions  of  this  kind  to  the  trade  organizations.  Thus,  the 
Action  Frangaise  leans  so  heavily  upon  the  Social  Catholic 
thesis  of  industrial  organization  that  it  all  but  discards  the 
Social  Catholic  thesis  of  social  legislation. 

Moreover,  the  thesis  of  industrial  organization,  in  the  hands 
of  the  Action  Frangaise,  assumes  a  form  repugnant  to  the 
Social  Catholic  School.  The  Action  Frangaise,  like  the  Social 
Catholic  School,  favors  the  guild  organization  of  industry. 
But  the  latter  school,  abhorring  class  hatred,  aims  at  the  con- 
ciliation of  labor  and  capital  on  a  basis  of  social  justice,  mutual 
interest,  and  Christian  concord,  while  the  Action  Frangaise, 
fostering  class  antagonism,  aims  at  an  equipoise  of  opposing 
forces.  The  theory  of  the  Action  Frangaise  is  that 

Today  the  king  appears,  above  all,  as  the  king  of  labor,  the  king 
of  production ;  his  interest  is  that  labor  organization  should  attain 
its  highest  development,  appealing  to  that  which  gives  it  its  rigor- 
ously laborite  character,  the  class  spirit,  in  order  that  the  capitalist 
bourgeoisie  may  accomplish  its  historic  mission.  The  king  tends 
to  maintain  the  captains  of  industry  between  two  walls, —  on  one 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  365 

side  a  central  government  absolutely  independent  of  the  capitalists, 
on  the  other  side,  a  working  class  strongly  organized.  .  .  .  1085 

To  favor  the  class-conscious  labor  movement  is  almost  a  tacti- 
cal necessity  for  the  Action  Frangaise.  If  the  workingmen 
should  become  reconciled  to  the  capitalists,  or  converted  to 
social  democracy,  one  could  hardly  expect  them  to  aid  in  the 
overthrow  of  the  republican  government.  But  revolutionary 
syndicalism,  vowed  to  "  direct  action  "  against  the  capitalists, 
and  scornful  of  political  democracy,  might  prove  a  useful  ally ; 
it  would  at  least  help  to  discredit  the  democratic  form  of  gov- 
ernment; and  it  might  conceivably  join  forces  with  the  mon- 
archists in  using  violence  against  the  republican  bourgeoisie.1080 
In  a  word,  the  Action  Frangaise  agrees  with  the  Social  Cath- 
olics in  recommending  the  guild  form  of  industrial  organization, 
but  differs  from  them  in  regard  to  the  question  of  social  legis- 
lation and  the  question  of  class  antagonism.  The  difference 
seems  to  be  traceable  to  a  political  preconception  in  favor  of 
monarchy.  Being  hostile  to  the  Republic,  the  Action  Frangaise 
naturally  has  no  faith  in  social  legislation  by  the  Republic. 
Hoping  for  a  monarchical  restoration,  the  Action  Frangaise  is 
prone  to  regard  revolutionary  syndicalism  —  which  is  so  repug- 
nant to  the  Social  Catholics  —  as  a  possible  ally  against  democ- 
racy. 

THE  "  CHRISTIAN  DEMOCRATS  " 

In  precisely  the  opposite  direction,  but  for  precisely  the  same 
reason,  the  "  Christian  Democrats  "  diverge  from  the  Social 
Catholic  School.  Like  the  Action  Frangaise,  the  Christian 
Democrats  make  their  social  theories  dependent  upon  their 
preference  for  a  particular  form  of  government.  In  the  case 
of  the  Christian  Democrats,  however,  political  democracy,  not 
monarchy,  is  the  favored  constitution.  And  whereas  the  polit- 
ical theories  of  the  Action  Frangaise  lead  to  the  rejection  of  the 
Social  Catholic  theory  of  democratic  social  legislation,  the  polit- 
ical theories  of  the  Christian  Democrats  lead  to  the  exaltation 
of  such  legislation  as  the  great  instrument  of  social  reform. 

The  Christian  Democratic  movement  in  France  has  been  so 


366  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

important  that  a  somewhat  more  extended  consideration  must 
be  devoted  to  its  rise  and  its  doctrines.  It  should  be  remarked 
in  advance  that  no  hard  and  fast  line  may  be  drawn  between 
this  movement  and  the  Social  Catholic  movement  proper. 
Superficially,  their  programs  are  much  alike.  The  difference 
between  the  two  movements  is  essentially  a  difference  of  em- 
phasis, and  such  a  difference  is  clearly  recognizable  only  in 
extremes.  Even  today  the  two  merge  into  one  another  through 
a  continuous  zone  of  intermediate  gradation,  so  that  leaders 
like  Max  Turmann  may  be  called,  sometimes,  Christian  Demo- 
crats, sometimes,  Social  Catholics. 

The  French  Christian  Democratic  movement  arose  about  the 
time  of  Pope  Leo  Ill's  famous  encyclicals  (on  the  labor  ques- 
tion, 1891,  and  on  acceptance  of  the  French  Republic,  1892). 
The  leaders,  who  were,  for  the  most  part,  brilliant  young  priests 
engaged  in  popular  journalism,  or  in  politics,  believed  that  the 
time  had  come  for  the  Church  to  stand  forth  as  the  fearless 
champion  of  the  masses.  Militantly  democratic  was  the  tone  of 
the  numerous  journals  and  reviews,  such  as  Abbe  Naudet's 
Social  Justice,  Abbe  Six's  Christian  Democracy,  Abbe  Dabry's 
Catholic  Life,  and  Abbe  Garnier's  The  French  People,  through 
which  these  ardent  young  journalist-priests  poured  forth  their 
new  gospel  of  political  and  social  democracy,  during  the  decade 
of  the  'nineties.  One  of  their  band,  Abbe  Gamier,  toured 
France  to  found  a  '*  National  Union,"  a  strenuously  democratic 
organization.  Two  others,  namely  Abbe  Lemire  and  Abbe 
Gayraud,  were  elected  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  the  former 
in  1895,  the  latter  in  i897.1087 

The  movement  was  at  first  spontaneous  rather  than  con- 
certed or  organized.  But  in  1896  and  1897  great  conventions 
were  held  at  Rheims  and  Lyons,  respectively,  and  out  of  them 
grew  the  "  Christian  Democratic  Party."  1088  The  party  was 
thoroughly  democratic,  strongly  social  in  tendency,  and  pas- 
sionately anti-Semitic.1089  Edouard  Drumont,  leader  of  the 
anti-Semitic  campaign,  was  recognized  as  foster-father  of  the 
new  organization.  Leon  Harmel,  the  benevolent  Catholic  capi- 
talist who  twenty-three  years  previously  had  come  to  the 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  367 

support  of  Count  Albert  de  Mun's  Workingmen's  Clubs,1090 
now  became  chairman  of  the  national  committee  of  the  Chris- 
tian Democratic  party.1091  It  was  he  that  led  imposing  "  labor 
pilgrimages  "  to  the  Vatican,  and  obtained  from  Leo  XIII,  in 
1897,  the  encouraging  declaration :  "  if,  in  a  word,  Democracy 
will  be  Christian,  it  will  give  to  your  country  a  future  of  peace, 
prosperity,  and  happiness."  1092  It  was  Harmel,  also,  who  at 
this  same  period  endeavored  to  steer  the  French  Young  Men's 
Catholic  Association  in  the  direction  of  Christian  Democ- 
racy.1093 

The  Christian  Democratic  movement  seemed  first  to  be  sim- 
ply a  new  development  of  the  older  Social  Catholic  movement 
inaugurated  by  Count  Albert  de  Mun  and  his  disciples  in  the 
'seventies.  To  advocate  social  legislation,  to  repudiate  social- 
ism, to  champion  the  principle  of  labor  organization,  to  empha- 
size the  social  mission  of  Christianity, —  all  this  was  merely 
•what  the  Social  Catholics  had  been  doing  for  years  past.  In 
fact,  Abbe  Gayraud  claimed  that  the  Christian  Democratic 
Party  was  an  indirect  offshoot  of  Count  Albert  de  Mun's  Work- 
ingmen's Clubs. 

A  difference  of  spirit,  however,  gradually  became  apparent. 
The  older  generation  of  Social  Catholics  had  made  a  great  point 
of  class  conciliation  and  of  the  devotion  of  the  upper  class 
to  the  service  of  the  masses ;  the  benevolent  role  of  the  aristoc- 
racy was  one  of  de  Mun's  most  cherished  conceptions.  But 
the  Christian  Democrats  believed  that  men  were  born  with 
equal  rights,  and  hence  that  there  should  be  no  upper  classes. 
The  masses  should  help  themselves.  They  endeavored  to  en- 
courage the  workingman  to  defend  his  own  interests,  by  means 
of  the  ballot  and  of  the  trade  union.  For  this  reason  they 
repudiated  the  mixed  unions  of  labor  and  capital,  so  long 
vaunted  by  the  Social  Catholics.  Such  unions,  they  con- 
sidered, tended  to  prevent  labor  from  becoming  independent. 
Much  to  be  preferred  were  parallel  but  separate  employers' 
unions  and  labor  unions.  The  same  idea  of  self-help  charac- 
terized the  Christian  Democratic  program  of  social  politics. 
Their  cry  was  for  more  democracy,  for  direct  government ;  for 


368  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

proportional  representation  and  for  the  referendum.  This  per- 
fected political  democracy,  they  hoped,  would  be  used  by  the 
people  as  an  instrument  for  democratic  labor  legislation  and 
social  insurance. 

From  the  first,  the  Christian  Democrats  were  radical  ex- 
ponents of  social  legislation  and  trade-unionism.  In  the  early 
'nineties  we  find  Abbe  Naudet,  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment, advocating  trade-unionism  as  the  only  means  of  organ- 
izing the  power  of  labor,  and  demanding  state  intervention  in 
favor  of  the  unions.  "  In  order,"  he  said,  "  to  assure  the  work- 
ingman  the  protection  of  which  he  has  need,  we  must  have  a 
guild  organization  of  industry,  and,  in  order  that  this  organ- 
ization may  be  effective,  we  wish  it  to  be  obligatory."  In 
another  speech  Naudet  declared,  *'  To  crown  my  social  pro- 
gram I  boldly  and  fearlessly  demand  state  intervention  to 
sanction  the  articles  elaborated  by  the  guild."  The  unions  or 
guilds  were  to  be  made  compulsory,  by  law,  and  their  decisions 
were  to  be  upheld  by  the  authority  of  the  government.1094 

In  a  book  published  in  the  year  1900  and  entitled  Democracy 
and  the  Christian  Democrats,  Abbe  Naudet  outlined  a  radical 
program  for  Christian  Democracy.  In  the  first  place,  the  gov- 
ernment should  be  made  thoroughly  responsive  to  the  will  of 
the  people,  by  means  of  the  popular  referendum,  representation 
of  minorities,  representation  of  professions  or  trades,  and  local 
self-government.  Democracy  should  then  be  used  as  an  in- 
strument for  the  betterment  of  the  conditions  of  labor.  It 
should  pass  laws  against  monopolies,  regulate  the  Stock  Ex- 
change, limit  the  working  day,  prohibit  work  at  night  or  on 
Sunday,  establish  the  minimum  wage  and  obligatory  insurance 
in  government  contract  work,  establish  accident  compensation 
and  old-age  pensions  for  all,  promote  profit-sharing  and  co- 
operative enterprises,  and  readjust  the  burden  of  taxation. 
The  government  should  also  foster  the  organization  of  indus- 
try, in  the  form  of  parallel  unions  of  labor  and  capital,  with 
mixed  boards  or  joint  councils.1095 

Another  Christian  Democrat,  Abbe  Fesch,  in  his  Annee  so- 
ciale  en  France  for  1898,  summarized  the  Christian  Democratic 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  369 

program  as  follows:  (i)  Agrarian  reforms  for  the  benefit  of 
small  holders,  (2)  progressive  taxation  of  incomes  and  unpro- 
ductive capital,  (3)  trade-union  organization,  with  permanent 
arbitration  committees  comprising  delegates  of  employers  and 
of  labor,  (4)  labor  legislation,  including  the  minimum  wage, 
Sunday  holiday,  limitation  of  hours,  suppression  of  night  work 
except  in  factories  with  continuous  fire,  exclusion  of  mothers 
from  industrial  establishments,  restriction  of  the  employment  of 
young  girls,  obligatory  social  insurance,  international  labor 
legislation,  (5)  cooperation,  (6)  regulation  of  commerce  and 
of  the  Stock  Exchange,  (7)  proportional  representation  of 
professional  or  trade  interests,  (8)  decentralization,  (9)  laws 
against  Jews  and  Free-Masons.1096 

While  many  of  the  reforms  which  the  Christian  Democrats 
advocated  were  not  essentially  different  from  those  which  the 
Social  Catholics  favored,  the  latter  soon  recognized  that  the 
Christian  Democrats  were  actuated  by  a  spirit  radically  differ- 
ent from  their  own.  Christian  Democracy  was  appealing  to  the 
class-conscious  action  of  labor ;  Social  Catholicism,  to  the  recon- 
ciliation and  mutual  devotion  of  the  classes. 

While  criticizing  the  theories  of  the  Christian  Democrats,  the 
Social  Catholics  made  repeated  efforts  to  conciliate  them  and 
generously  opened  the  pages  of  L' Association  catholique  to 
Christian  Democratic  writers  and  to  theorists  like  Goyau  and 
Turmann  who  held  an  intermediate  position  between  Christian 
Democracy  and  Social  Catholicism.  The  Social  Catholic  con- 
gresses or  Semaines  sociales  also  showed  marked  hospitality 
toward  Christian  Democrats  like  Abbe  Calippe,  Goyau,  Tur- 
mann. And  gradually,  one  may  say,  an  important  group  of 
Christian  Democrats  became  so  closely  identified  with  the 
Social  Catholic  movement  that  a  real  fusion  took  place.  More- 
over, experience  having  shown  the  Christian  Democratic 
scheme  of  parallel  unions  of  labor  and  capital  to  be  more  prac- 
tical than  the  original  Social  Catholic  scheme  of  mixed  unions, 
most  Social  Catholics  in  course  of  time  were  converted  to  the 
parallel  unions.  The  result  was  a  conciliation  both  of  per- 
sons and  of  doctrines. 


37°  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Nevertheless,  another  group  of  Christian  Democrats,  notably 
those  who  were  most  interested  in  political  agitation,  drifted 
away  from,  instead  of  towards,  the  Social  Catholic  School, 
because  to  them  the  all-important  issue  was  political  liberalism. 
What  especially  widened  the  gulf  was  the  establishment  of 
Piou's  Liberal  Group  (1899),  which  developed  into  the  Popular 
Liberal  Party  (1902).  This  new  patty,  as  we  have  seen,  ac- 
cepted in  large  part  the  social  program  of  the  Social  Catholic 
School  and  honored  the  veteran  leader  of  that  school,  Count 
Albert  de  Mun,  with  the  post  of  vice-president.  Now  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party,  by  opening  its  ranks  to  former  mon- 
archists who  consented  merely  to  refrain  from  agitation  against 
the  republic,  and  by  merely  accepting  the  republic  as  the  exist- 
ing form  of  government  without  declaring  republican  democ- 
racy to  be  the  best  possible  form  of  government,  gave  offense 
to  many  of  the  Christian  Democrats.  For,  to  them,  political 
democracy  was  a  principle  to  be  enthusiastically  embraced  and 
ardently  defended,  not  to  be  coldly  accepted.  The  Popular 
Liberal  Party,  they  declared,  was  simply  a  manoeuvre  of  the 
reactionary  monarchists  and  conservatives,  an  attempt  to  create 
a  confessional  Catholic  party  within  which  the  conservatives 
would  have  the  upper  hand. 

Consequently,  although  the  program  of  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party,  as  it  gradually  developed,  was  very  similar  to  their  own, 
these  Christian  Democrats  attacked  the  new  party  with  a  vio- 
lence of  indignation  which  knew  no  bounds.  Abbe  Dabry,  for 
example,  waged  what  he  called  a  "  terrible  campaign  "  against 
the  Popular  Liberal  Party.  In  his  book  on  The  Republican 
Catholics,  published  in  1905,  Dabry  declared  that  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  party  was  the  supreme  blunder,  the  great  political 
crime,  the  cause  of  the  anticlerical  legislation  which  marked 
the  early  years  of  the  new  century.1097  He  himself  would  have 
preferred  that  Catholics  should  join  the  existing  republican 
parties,  or  that  a  new  democratic  republican  party,  not  confes- 
sional in  character,  should  be  organized  to  cooperate  with  the 
Progressists,  the  Moderate  Republicans,  the  Socialist-Radicals, 
and  even  the  Socialists,  against  the  reactionaries.1098 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  371 

Similarly,  in  his  polemic  entitled  Why  the  Catholics  Have 
Lost  the  Battle,  Abbe  Naudet  assailed  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party  quite  as  vehemently.1099  The  party,  he  scornfully  de- 
clared, was  neither  popular  nor  liberal. 

Abbe  Lemire,  a  Christian  Democratic  priest,  who  had  been 
elected  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  held  aloof  from  the  Popu- 
lar Liberal  Party,  and  gravitated  away  from  the  Social  Cath- 
olics;1100 in  time  he  became  suspected  of  modernism  and  had 
trouble  with  the  ecclesiastical  authorities. 

Their  breach  with  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  as  has  been 
suggested,  made  it  difficult  for  the  extreme  liberal  wing  of  the 
Christian  Democratic  group  to  remain  on  good  terms  with  the 
Social  Catholic  School,  many  prominent  members  of  which 
were  more  or  less  closely  identified  with  the  Popular  Liberal 
Party  in  politics. 

Increasingly,  this  Christian  Democratic  faction  was  drawn 
toward  non-Catholics  who  held  similar  political  doctrines,  and 
increasingly  it  fell  under  the  suspicion  of  wavering  in  its  re- 
ligious orthodoxy,  of  attempting  to  "  modernize  "  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church  to  suit  its  own  political  philosophy.  Conserva- 
tive clergymen  like  Abbe  Barbier  openly  accused  the  Christian 
Democrats  of  "  modernism,"  the  heresy  of  making  religious 
truth  depend  upon  changing  popular  sentiments  rather  than 
upon  unalterable  divine  revelation.  Abbe  Lemire,  for  example, 
had  attempted  to  apply  his  democratic  theories  to  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Church.  Various  Christian  Democrats  had  shown 
a  disposition  to  sympathize  with  the  "  higher  criticism  "  of  the 
Bible.1101 

With  the  purely  theological  aspect  of  modernism  we  have  no 
concern  in  this  narrative,  but  the  relation  of  modernism  to  the 
social  philosophy  of  the  Christian  Democrats  is  pertinent. 
This  relationship  was  pointed  out  by  Joseph  Zamanski,  one  of 
the  editors  of  Le  Mouvement  social  and  a  vigorous  exponent  of 
Social  Catholic  doctrines.  The  heart  of  the  modernist  thesis, 
he  said,  was  what  has  been  called  "  religious  immanence,"  the 
idea  that  every  vital  phenomenon  has  for  its  primary  stimulus 
a  need,  for  its  primary  manifestation,  a  sentiment.  The  need 


372  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

of  divinity,  it  would  appear,  engenders  a  certain  sentiment  in 
which  faith  reposes. 

Now  if  in  some  such  manner  as  this  "one  discovers  God 
within  himself  "  and  can  even  deduce  from  a  "  vague  aspira- 
tion "  the  most  precise  dogmas  of  a  given  religion,  as  do  the 
modernists,  it  is  all  the  easier  to  follow  the  same  process  in 
regard  to  sociology,  and  to  "  draw  sociological  conceptions  from 
the  mysterious  depths  of  the  soul."  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
Zamanski  continues,  "  we  notice  with  pain  that  some  of  our 
friends  have  an  unlimited  confidence  in  this  method."  It  is 
the  extreme  Christian  Democrats  to  whom  Zamanski  here  re- 
fers. To  them,  he  says,  the  basis  of  social  science  appears  to 
consist  in  discovering  what  they,  like  the  modernists,  call  the 
"  aspirations  of  the  modern  spirit,"  in  obeying  what  they  con- 
sider to  be  undeniable  social  necessities. 

Under  the  influence  of  the  generous  emotions  awakened  by 
knowledge  of  social  needs,  these  persons  think  their  good  inten- 
tions an  adequate  equipment  for  solving  a  problem  which  re- 
veals itself  from  day  to  day  as  they  proceed.  Invariably  they 
exalt  Life,  "  Life  possessing  a  truth  and  a  logic  of  its  own, 
different  from  rational  logic  and  truth,  as  the  immanentists 
say."  Just  as  the  religious  modernists  construct  religion  on 
the  human  sentiment  of  aspiration  toward  the  divine,  the  social 
modernists  believe  that  social  action  should  be  the  product  of  a 
sentiment  of  love ;  just  as  the  Church  is  regarded  as  the  emana- 
tion of  the  collective  conscience  of  the  believers,  the  new  society 
is  expected  to  be  the  emanation  of  "  a  collective  sentimental- 
ity." 

But  the  thesis  of  religious  immanence,  the  writer  observes, 
leads  fatally  to  the  acceptance  of  all  religions  as  true.  And 
similarly,  what  might  be  called  the  thesis  of  "  social  imma- 
nence "  or  social  modernism,  "  leads  its  victims  into  all  sorts  of 
fantastic  ideas,  into  all  kinds  of  action  successively  undertaken 
and  abandoned,  into  all  the  follies  of  an  activity  which  is  not 
subjected  to  the  guidance  of  reason."  In  other  words,  Zaman- 
ski considers  that  the  reliance  of  the  Christian  Democrats  upon 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  373 

popular  aspirations  as  the  basis  of  their  social  doctrines,  rather 
than  upon  fixed  principles,  is  an  exact  sociological  counterpart 
of  the  modernist  error  in  religion,  and  results  in  social  vagaries 
rather  than  in  solid  contributions  to  social  reform.1102 

Modernism  and  the  extreme  form  of  Christian  Democracy 
were  not  only  similar  in  their  method  of  argument,  as  Zamanski 
claimed,  but  they  were  actually  associated  and  akin.  Christian 
Democratic  reviews  were  organs  for  modernist  views  of  re- 
ligion, as  well  as  for  democratic  views  of  politics  and  society. 
Consequently,  when  modernism  was  condemned  by  Pope  Pius 
X  in  1907,  some  of  the  Christian  Democrats  were  involved. 
Two  Christian  Democratic  organs  voluntarily  suspended  pub- 
lication, namely,  Tomorrow  (Demain},  a  weekly,  published  at 
Lyons,  by  Pierre  Jay,  and  the  Fortnightly  (Quinzaine),  the 
important  Parisian  review  buil't  up  by  Georges  Fonsegrive  dur- 
ing the  decade  1897-1907.  Two  others, —  Abbe  Dabry's  jour- 
nal, Catholic  Life  (La  Vie  catholique),  and  Abbe  Naudet's 
Social  Justice  (La  Justice  sociale)  — were  condemned  by  de- 
cree of  the  Holy  Office,  Feb.  13,  lo/DS.1103 

The  Social  Catholics,  who  had  disliked  modernist  tendencies 
of  the  Christian  Democrats,  applauded  the  pope's  action.  The 
Social  Catholic  movement  had  been  scrupulously  orthodox  and 
made  a  great  point  of  loyalty  to  the  Holy  See. 

Commenting  on  the  pope's  action,  Henri  Bazire,  a  former 
president  of  the  A.  C.  J.  F.,  and  a  prominent  member  of  the 
Popular  Liberal  Party,  declared  that  the  association  of  modern- 
ism and  social  reform  by  the  Christian  Democrats  had  done 
grave  injury  to  the  Social  Catholic  movement.  He  said, 

It  was  the  misfortune  of  well-intentioned  Catholics  to  permit  them- 
selves to  be  imposed  upon  by  a  school  of  overrated  intellectuals,  and 
to  associate  their  own  revindications  with  the  most  risky  affirma- 
tions. What  was  there  in  common  between  the  thesis  on  im- 
manence and  the  reform  of  the  labor  contract,  between  fair  wages 
and  the  authenticity  of  such  and  such  a  Mosaic  book?  Neverthe- 
less, it  is  impossible  to  deny  that,  in  public  opinion,  a  certain  con- 
fusion arose,  due  to  the  fact  that  too  often  it  was  the  same  men, 
the  same  publications,  who  with  the  same  conviction  defended  these 


374  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

causes  of  unequal  value.  Who  shall  say  how  much  injury  was  done 
the  Social  Catholic  movement  by  this  confusion?  One  would  have 
to  go  back  ten  years  to  take  account  of  it. 

From  Americanism  to  modernism,  not  forgetting  reform  of 
education  for  women,  everything  has  been  loaded  on  the  poor 
vessel  of  Social  Catholicism  or  of  Christian  Democracy,  at  the  risk 
of  sinking  it.  Nothing  is  as  heavy  as  dead  weights.  .  .  . 

The  great  words  of  science,  democracy,  progress,  are  used  by  the 
confusionist  Catholics  as  an  accompaniment  to  celebrate  the  re- 
conciliation of  the  Church  and  the  century;  and  in  this  vast  per- 
spective Christian  social  reform  no  longer  appears  except  as  a  part 
of  the  intellectual  movement  which  has  been  called  Catholic  reform- 
ism. 

No  error  was  more  disastrous,  and  if  Social  Catholicism  has  not 
obtained  larger  results  in  France,  the  fault  is  not  solely  with 
bourgeois  egoism,  with  conservative  prejudices,  but  also  with  the 
doctrinal  temerities  of  certain  of  its  partisans  who,  under  its  ban- 
ner, sheltered  theses  of  the  purest  liberalism  in  religious  matters, 
of  the  most  inconscient  individualism  in  the  social  order. 

Rome  has  spoken,  and  we  cannot  mark  too  clearly  the  abyss 
which  separates  the  Social  Catholic  School  from  modern- 


The  Christian  Democrats  —  to  return  to  our  original  thesis, — 
diverged  from  the  Social  Catholic  School  by  reason  of  their 
greater  faith  in  political  and  social  democracy,  and,  hence,  of 
their  greater  emphasis  upon  social  legislation.  One  wing  of  the 
Christian  Democratic  movement,  as  we  have  seen,  carried  the 
belief  in  democracy  to  such  lengths  that  it  became  estranged 
from  the  Social  Catholic  School,  associated  itself  with  modern- 
ism, and  exposed  itself  to  papal  condemnation.  But  the  other 
wing,  led  by  men  like  Calippe,  Goyau,  and  Turmann,  remained 
orthodox  in  religious  doctrine  and  participated  so  actively  in 
the  Social  Catholic  movement  that  one  could  hardly  regard  them 
as  exterior  to  it.  And,  thanks  to  their  influence,  certain  Chris- 
tian Democratic  ideas,  such  as  the  parallel  unions  of  capital  and 
labor,  were  carried  over  into  Social  Catholicism,  with  the  result 
that  the  Social  Catholic  movement  of  today  represents  no  longer 
the  original  doctrine  of  de  Mun  exclusively,  but  a  synthesis, 
more  democratic  than  de  Mun's  earlier  conception  and  more  in 
harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  age. 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  375 

THE    SlLLON   AND   THE   YOUNG    REPUBLIC 

One  very  interesting  offshoot  of  the  Christian  Democratic 
agitation  has  been  left  out  of  the  discussion,  up  to  this  point, 
in  order  that  it  might  be  considered  separately.  It  is  the  league 
or  association  called  "The  Furrow"  (Le  Sillon),  together 
with  its  successor,  the  League  of  the  Young  Republic. 

The  Sillon  grew  out  of  a  group  of  students  who  began  to  hold 
meetings  in  the  crypt  of  the  College  Stanislas  in  1894  and  who 
continued  to  meet  together  in  subsequent  years  at  the  Ecole 
Polytechnique.  The  movement  expanded  rapidly.  In  Paris 
and  in  the  provinces  local  Sillons,  study  clubs,  and  "  People's 
Institutes "  were  founded.  A  journal,  The  Democratic  Call 
(L'Eveil  democratiqiie) ,  and  a  review,  The  Furrow  (Le  Sil- 
lon), popularized  the  ideas  of  the  association.  In  1902  the 
Sillon  began  to  hold  national  congresses  or  conventions.  The 
first  was  attended  by  a  mere  handful  of  delegates ;  the  second, 
by  300,  the  third,  in  1904,  by  800;  the  fourth,  in  1905,  by  1500; 
the  fifth,  in  1906,  by  almost  1900.  Moreover,  instead  of  limit- 
ing its  membership  to  Catholics,  as  it  had  done  at  first,  after 
1906  it  opened  its  doors  to  all  believers  in  the  religion  of  democ- 
racy, regardless  of  theological  creeds,  and  styled  itself  the 
"  Greater  Furrow  "  (Le  Plus  Grand  Sillon).  So  rapid  was  its 
growth,  and  so  active  were  its  leaders  in  popular  propaganda 
and  polemic  that  the  Sillon  soon  became  a  very  considerable 
force  in  shaping  public  opinion.  Moreover,  it  really  had  a 
direct  influence  upon  a  large  number  of  workingmen.1106 

The  Sillon  was  not  a  political  party  or  a  school  of  political 
economy;  nor  was  it  an  ordinary  propagandist  association.  It 
was  something  more, —  "  a  movement,  a  life,  a  common  soul," 
—  a  brotherhood  claiming  the  allegiance  of  heart  as  well  as  of 
mind.  Its  aim  was  to  impart,  at  first  to  a  chosen  few  or  elite 
group,  and  through  them  to  the  masses  generally,  an  ardent 
spirit  of  political  and  social  democracy,  of  liberty,  equality,  and 
fraternity.  Adepts  in  the  philosophy  of  the  Sillon  seemed  at 
times  to  experience  super-rational  ecstasies  of  fraternal  spirit ; 
they  became  mystics,  devotees  of  democracy.1106 


3/6  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

The  program  of  the  movement  was  essentially  the  Christian 
Democratic  program.  Starting  from  the  assumption  that 
Catholicism  and  republicanism  were  mutually  compatible  and, 
in  fact,  that  republicanism  had  need  of  Catholicism,  the  Sillon 
endeavored,  in  the  words  of  one  of  its  leaders,  "  to  place  at  the 
service  of  French  democracy  the  social  forces  which  we  find 
in  Catholicism."  Christianity  was  necessary  to  democracy,  be- 
cause a  republic  was,  of  all  forms  of  government,  the  one 
requiring  the  greatest  virtue,  and,  therefore,  the  greatest  amount 
of  Christianity. 

We  have  need  of  moral  strength  in  order  to  sacrifice  our  own 
interests  to  the  common  interests.  One  must  therefore  respect  the 
sources  from  which  men  draw  moral  strength ;  and  Christianity  is 
an  incomparable  source  of  democratic  energy  since  it  identifies  the 
individual's  interests  with  the  general  interests.1107 

The  disciples  of  the  "  Furrow  "  were,  above  all  else,  democrats 
and  republicans.  They  were  democrats  because  they  believed 
democracy  to  be  the  most  perfect  form  of  government;  re- 
publicans, because  they  deemed  the  republic  the  most  perfect 
form  of  democracy.1108 

The  economic  program  of  the  "  Furrow  "  was  twofold.  On 
one  hand,  the  state  was  to  intervene,  by  means  of  social  legis- 
lation, to  repress  abuses  and  to  maintain  for  all  citizens  a 
minimum  of  material  welfare  sufficient  to  safeguard  the  liberty 
and  dignity  of  each.  Thus,  the  state  should  establish  obliga- 
tory social  insurance,  and  should  enact  factory  laws.  But  on 
the  other  hand,  the  action  of  the  workingmen  themselves  was 
necessary.  "  The  proletarians  themselves  must  organize  and, 
in  particular,  must  develop  cooperative  societies  and  trade 
unions."  These  organizations  offered  "  not  merely  a  remedy 
for  present  evils,  but  an  instrument  of  social  transformation." 
The  wage-system  was  not  to  be  considered  as  "  the  final  stage 
of  evolution."  Just  how  it  would  be  replaced  was  not  exactly 
clear,  but  the  system  of  cooperative  production,  at  any  rate, 
was  preferable  to  it.  Moreover,  associations  of  workingmen 
should  be  permitted  to  establish  common  properties,  in  addition 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  377 

to  the  private  properties  of  the  members.  Thus  there  would 
be  three  forms  of  property:  private  property  owned  by  in- 
dividuals, common  property  owned  by  associations  of  working- 
men,  collective  property  owned  by  joint  stock  companies.  The 
co-existence  of  these  three  forms  of  property,  it  was  held, 
would  be  "  a  guarantee  of  independence,  a  source  of  moral 
energy  and  moral  dignity."  1109 

Opinions  of  the  Sillon's  program  differed.  An  anticlerical 
historian,  Georges  Weill,  regarded  it  as  "  Catholic  liberalism 
in  the  broadest,  most  advanced,  least  exclusive  form."1112 
Abbe  Barbier,  a  conservative,  viewed  it  as  a  program  of  class- 
hatred  :  the  "  Furrow,"  he  said,  "  preaches  everywhere  the 
levelling  of  the  classes,  uses  every  occasion  for  incitement  to 
the  class-struggle,  promises,  every  day,  the  suppression  of 
capitalism,  foments  contempt  and  hatred  of  the  employ- 
ers." 1113  Another  critic,  de  Marans,  discovered  that  the  "  Fur- 
row "  consisted  essentially  in  a  "  rejuvenation  of  the  old  thesis 
of  the  liberal-conservatives,  which  is  presented  [by  the  '  Fur- 
row ']  as  the  most  '  advanced '  and  the  most  '  opportune '  at- 
titude a  Catholic  can  take."  The  philosophy  of  the  "  Furrow," 
said  de  Marans,  was  merely  a  "  travesty  "  of  the  old  individual- 
ism; it  was  the  old  individualistic  conception  of  democracy 
modified  by  the  recognition  of  the  necessity  of  social  legisla- 
tion. In  spirit,  it  was  "  retrograde."  1114 

"  Advanced  "  or  "  retrograde  " —  whichever  it  might  be  — 
the  philosophy  of  the  "  Furrow  "  was  not  acceptable  to  the 
Holy  See.  In  a  letter  to  the  French  archbishops  and  bishops, 
August  25,  1910,  Pius  X  formally  condemned  certain  of  the 
''  Furrow's "  principles  and  practices.  The  pontiff's  discus- 
sion of  these  points  is  interesting. 

The  "  Furrow,"  he  said,  had  been  misled  by  its  false  con- 
ception of  the  method  to  be  employed  in  uplifting  and  regen- 
erating the  masses.  The  "  Furrow  "  stood  for  popular  sov- 
ereignty and  the  levelling  of  social  classes.  But  on  this  point 
it  was  in  direct  opposition  to  Catholic  doctrine,  for  Leo  XIII 
had  branded  as  erroneous  the  idea  of  popular  sovereignty  and 
of  class-levelling. 


378  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

The  "  Furrow,"  Pius  pointed  out,  was  very  emphatic  in  up- 
holding the  dignity  of  man,  and  in  claiming  liberty  as  neces- 
sary to  that  dignity.  Liberty,  as  the  "  Furrow  "  defined  it, 
meant  that  except  in  matters  of  religion  every  individual  is 
autonomous.  From  this  principle,  the  following  conclusions 
were  drawn.  First,  political  emancipation :  the  people  are  to- 
day in  subjection  to  an  authority  distinct  from  themselves,  and 
they  must  be  freed.  Second,  economic  emancipation :  the  peo- 
ple are  today  dependent  upon  employers  who  possess  the  in- 
struments of  their  work,  and  who  exploit,  oppress  and  abase 
them ;  the  yoke  must  be  shaken  off.  Third,  intellectual  eman- 
cipation :  the  people  are  dominated  by  a  caste  called  the  ruling 
class,  whose  intellectual  development  enables  it  to  exercise  un- 
due influence ;  this  bond  too  must  be  broken.  This  triple  eman- 
cipation is  also  a  levelling  process,  and  will  establish  equality  as 
well  as  liberty.  A  political  organization  founded  upon  the 
double  basis  of  liberty  and  equality  is  democracy. 

Political  equality  would  arise  from  popular  sovereignty,  for 
all  men  would  be  equally  sovereign,  since  all  sovereignty  be- 
longed to  the  people.  All  men  would  be  equally  kings.  This 
sovereignty,  resting  with  the  people,  would  be  expressed  by 
means  of  election  or  selection,  but  would  not  leave  the  people 
or  become  independent  of  them. 

Similarly,  in  industry,  each  man  would  be  a  sort  of  master. 
Cooperative  production  would  be  substituted  for  the  wage  sys- 
tem, and  cooperative  societies  would  be  multiplied  to  such  an 
extent  that  they  competed  among  themselves,  and  the  working- 
men  might  be  free  to  choose  among  them. 

With  the  increase  of  liberty  and  equality,  and  the  decrease 
of  authority,  a  new  moral  principle  was  needed  as  an  offset 
to  individual  egoism.  This  new  principle  was  to  be  zeal  for 
the  welfare  of  the  trade  and  of  the  public,  taking  precedence 
over  each  individual's  instinctive  concern  for  his  own  and  his 
family's  welfare.  In  a  society  where  this  love  of  public  wel- 
fare existed,  and  where  each  workingman  had  the  soul  of  a 
master,  each  citizen  the  spirit  of  a  king,  human  dignity  would 
reach  its  highest  expression.  And  this  spirit  of  fraternity,  or 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  379 

the  love  of  common  interests,  might  be  conceived  as  expanding 
in  ever  wider  circles,  from  the  trade  to  the  nation,  from  the 
nation  to  the  whole  world. 

Such  was  the  ideal,  the  vision,  of  the  "  Furrow,"  as  summar- 
ized by  Pius  X.  The  vision,  Pius  asserted,  rested  upon  a  series 
of  errors. 

In  the  first  place,  the  "  Furrow  "  professed  a  fallacious  doc- 
trine of  popular  sovereignty.  It  made  the  people  the  source 
of  all  governmental  authority.  Catholic  doctrine,  on  the  con- 
trary, regarded  God  as  the  source  of  all  power ;  if,  in  democratic 
states,  the  people  elected  their  rulers,  they  did  not  thereby  con- 
fer authority,  but  merely  designated  the  person  to  be  invested 
with  authority  by  God. 

If  all  the  people  were  equally  the  possessors  of  sovereignty, 
there  would  be  no  authority.  In  the  future  city  to  which  the 
"  Furrow "  aspired,  there  were  to  be  neither  masters  nor 
servants,  but  all  were  to  be  free,  all  comrades,  all  kings.  This, 
says  the  pope,  is  contrary  to  common  sense.  There  will  always 
be  wicked  persons  who  must  be  curbed  by  the  exercise  of  au- 
thority. There  must  be  an  authority  to  direct  collective  activity 
toward  the  common  good. 

The  "  Furrow "  was  likewise  in  error  with  regard  to  the 
conception  of  fraternity,  which  it  based  upon  the  zeal  for  com- 
mon interests,  or  simply  upon  the  notion  of  humanity,  uniting 
with  equal  love  and  tolerance  all  mankind,  regardless  of  errors 
and  perversities.  Catholic  doctrine  taught  that  the  only  genu- 
ine source  of  fraternity  was  love  of  God.  Experience  con- 
firmed this  doctrine,  by  showing  in  numerous  instances  how 
little  men  cared  for  the  interests  of  all,  when  their  own  evil 
passions  were  aroused.  Christian  charity,  not  common  in- 
terests, was  the  only  solid  foundation  of  fraternity.  And 
Christian  charity,  while  applying  to  all  men,  did  not  mean 
tolerance  of  wrong  convictions,  of  vice,  and  of  error,  but  zeal 
for  their  betterment. 

Finally,  Pius  attacked  what  he  regarded  as  the  false  idea  of 
human  dignity  underlying  all  the  errors  of  the  "  Furrow." 
The  "  Furrow,"  he  said 


380  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

would  have  us  believe  that  man  will  not  truly  be  man  until  the  day 
that  he  has  acquired  a  conscience,  enlightened,  strong,  independent, 
autonomous,  that  can  dispense  with  a  master,  obedient  only  to  it- 
self. .  .  . 

Such  an  idea  was  simply  visionary.  Even  the  greatest  men 
had  no  such  infallibility  of  self -direction  and  such  an  extreme 
of  dignity.  And  should  one  deny  the  name  of  man  to  humble 
toilers  who  performed  their  duty  nobly,  in  humility,  obedience, 
and  patience? 

In  the  second  part  of  his  letter,  the  pope  proceeded  to  dis- 
cuss "  the  influence  of  these  errors  upon  the  practical  conduct 
and  social  action  "  of  the  "  Furrow."  The  study  groups  of 
the  "  Furrow "  were  conducted  according  to  the  theory  of 
popular  sovereignty;  there  was  no  leader,  no  master;  each 
member  was  equally  master  and  pupil.  Priests  who  entered 
such  groups  forgot  the  respect  and  obedience  due  to  authority. 
Catholics  who  became  filled  with  the  new  spirit  of  the  "  Fur- 
row "  could  no  longer  respect  a  Church  which  had  existed 
nineteen  centuries  without  realizing  the  "  Furrow's "  ideals. 

The  "  Furrow,"  Pius  went  on  to  remark,  enfeoffed  religion 
to  a  political  party ;  it  made  Christianity  the  servant  of  democ- 
racy. Christianity,  however,  was  superior  to  political  parties, 
and  the  Church  had  never  attached  itself  to  any  one  form  of 
government.  It  had  left  to  each  nation  the  freedom  to  choose 
what  it  considered  the  form  of  government  best  suited  to  its 
own  interests. 

The  "  Furrow  "  had  at  first  been  thoroughly  Catholic.  But 
when  it  became  the  "  Greater  Furrow,"  and  included  men  of 
all  faiths,  it  became  an  interconfessional  association,  and  it 
was  absurd  to  expect  the  Catholic  nucleus  to  make  the  "  Greater 
Furrow  "  Catholic.  No  longer  Catholic,  the  "  Furrow  "  had 
attempted  to  substitute  "  a  generous  idealism "  for  religion ; 
as  a  result  it  had  become  visionary  and  Utopian.  Or,  to  put  it 
in  another  way,  the  "  Furrow  "  had  been  "  captured  "  by  ''  the 
great  modern  movement  of  apostasy  organized  in  every  coun- 
try for  the  establishment  of  a  universal  Church,  which  will 
have  neither  dogma  nor  hierarchy,  nor  rule  for  the  mind,  nor 


DISSIDENT  GROUPS  381 

curb  for  the  passion,  and  which  under  pretext  of  liberty  and 
human  dignity  would  bring  about  in  the  world,  if  it  could  have 
its  way,  the  legal  rule  of  artifice  and  force,  the  oppression  of 
the  weak  and  of  all  who  suffer  and  work." 

In  conclusion,  the  pope  urged  that  the  bishops  should  select 
well-educated  leaders,  equipped  with  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
practical  social  science,  to  take  charge  of  Catholic  social  work. 
The  Catholic  members  of  the  "  Furrow,"  he  added,  might  con- 
tinue to  have  their  preference  for  democracy  in  politics,  if  they 
purged  their  doctrine  of  the  errors  which  had  been  pointed  out ; 
they  might  also  preserve  local  organizations  of  the  "  Furrow," 
provided  that  such  organizations  were  exclusively  Catholic  and 
were  called  Catholic  Furrows.1115 

The  pope's  letter  was  the  death-blow  for  the  "  Furrow," 
Marc  Sangnier,  leader  of  the  association,  declared  that  he  un- 
hesitatingly submitted  to  the  pope's  correction.  The  "  Fur- 
row "  was  abandoned. 

But,  he  maintained,  his  loyalty  to  the  republic  and  his  ardor 
for  democracy  were  undiminished.  Having  renounced  the 
work  of  educating  young  Catholics,  he  and  his  friends  now  con- 
sidered themselves  able  to  enter  a  field  where  their  action 
would  be  freer. 

At  first  he  seemed  to  hope  for  the  evolution  of  a  new  polit- 
ical party,  uniting  Free-thinkers  and  Catholics  on  a  platform 
of  proportional  representation,  labor  legislation,  religious  jus- 
tice, anti-alcoholism,  regulation  of  high  finance,  democratization 
of  the  army,  and  extension  of  education.  Such  a  party  being 
impossible  to  create,  at  present,  he  decided  to  found  a  league  for 
political  and  social  propaganda. 

The  new  league,  the  League  of  the  Young  Republic,  differed 
from  the  "  Furrow  "  in  being  more  definitely  concerned  with 
politics,  and  less  with  religion  and  morals.  Nevertheless,  its 
aims  bore  a  strong  resemblance  to  those  of  the  defunct  asso- 
ciation. Republican  and  democratic,  it  desired  "  that  the  Re- 
public may  be  loved,  that  the  Republic  may  become  the  living 
and  organic  expression  of  the  soul  of  France."  The  Republic 
had  need  of  moral  strength  and  should  therefore  respect  the 


382  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

sources  —  notably,  Christianity  —  whence  citizens  might  draw 
such  moral  strength.  Catholics  should  be  free  to  work  in  the 
"  common  house  of  the  Republic "  without  having  to  hang 
their  heads  or  submit  to  humiliation. 

The  democratic  spirit  should  be  expressed  in  various  polit- 
ical and  economic  reforms.  Proportional  representation,  rep- 
resentation of  trades  or  professions,  the  popular  referendum, 
civil  service  reform,  and  democratization  of  the  army  were 
proposed  as  steps  toward  the  political  ideal  of  the  Young  Re- 
public. In  the  direction  of  economic  democracy,  the  burden  of 
reform  rested  chiefly  upon  the  workingmen  themselves,  who 
must  use  trade-unionism  and  cooperative  production  as  step- 
ping-stones toward  a  future  economic  system  more  fraternal 
than  the  present  one.  Private  property  was  not  to  be  de- 
stroyed, but  collective  ownership  by  trade  unions  or  trade 
associations  was  to  exist  side  by  side  with  individual  owner- 
ship. To  some  extent  the  state  might  participate  in  the  work 
of  economic  reform,  by  passing  labor  legislation;  for  example, 
night-work  should  be  interdicted,  the  sweating  system  should 
be  repressed,  and  the  law  should  grant  to  all  workingmen  the 
benefit  of  old-age  pensions,  accident  compensation,  and  in- 
surance against  industrial  diseases.1116 

Such  was  the  program  of  the  League  of  the  Young  Republic, 
much  like  that  of  the  "  Furrow  "  in  its  emphasis  on  democracy 
and  fraternity.  Speaking  at  the  first  national  congress  of  his 
new  league,  in  October,  1912,  Sangnier,  former  leader  of  the 
"  Furrow,"  declared  that  the  condemnation  of  the  "  Furrow  " 
by  the  pope  had  proved  to  be  "  the  best  proof  of  the  political 
liberty  of  the  Catholics,"  because  it  showed  that,  after  abandon- 
ing a  confessional  organization  at  the  pope's  request,  they  were 
now  able  to  work  in  a  larger,  freer  field : 

I  say  that  this  a  proof  that  one  can  be  a  Catholic,  absolutely  and 
filially  loyal  to  the  authority  of  the  Church,  without  losing,  for  all 
that,  the  right  to  be  republican  and  democratic  as  much  as  and 
more  than  ever.1117 


CHAPTER  XII 
CONCLUSION 

SUMMARY 

WE  have  now  completed  our  general  narrative  of  the  Social 
Catholic  movement  in  France.  We  have  seen  how  it  originated 
in  sporadic  protests  against  industrial  anarchy,  how  it  took 
organized  form  after  1870,  and  branched  out  into  a  network 
of  interrelated  organizations:  the  Association  of  Catholic 
Workingmen's  Clubs,  the  Young  Men's  Catholic  Association, 
the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  the  Action  Populaire,  the  "  Social 
Weeks,"  the  Consumers'  League.  And  we  have  also  traced  the 
influence  of  its  ideas  upon  associated  movements  that  can  hardly 
be  called,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  term,  Social  Catholic,  and 
yet  which  owe  much  to  Social  Catholicism,  namely,  the  Chris- 
tian Democratic  movement,  the  "  Furrow,"  the  League  of  the 
Young  Republic,  the  "  Social  Reform "  School,  the  Action 
Franc,  aise,  the  last-mentioned  being  an  antagonist  of  as  well 
as  a  debtor  to  Social  Catholicism.  None  of  these  divergent 
schools  of  thought  are  as  important,  numerically,  as  the  central 
body  of  the  Social  Catholic  movement,  but  each  helps  to  radiate, 
in  some  degree,  the  influence  of  that  movement. 

The  following  tabular  statement,  showing  how  the  Social 
Catholic  movement  stands  on  the  main  points  of  social  politics, 
in  comparison  with  other  Catholic  schools,  and  with  non-Cath- 
olic schools,  will  perhaps  be  convenient  by  way  of  recapitula- 
tion. 

A  general  observation  may  be  hazarded  regarding  the  table. 
In  the  Social  Catholic  program  the  three  elements, —  social 
legislation,  labor  organization,  and  conservation  of  individual 
rights, —  are  balanced,  or,  rather,  interwoven.  If  one  of  the 

383 


384  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

COMPARISON  OF  SOCIAL  RECONSTRUCTION  PROGRAMS 


Political  action  and  social 
legislation 

Program    of   labor   organ- 
ization 

Protection      of 
private  prop- 
erty     and 
economic 
liberty 

Social 
Catholics 
(including 
Popular 
Liberal  Party) 

Comprehensive  and  radi- 
cal program  including 
social  insurance,  restric- 
tion of  hours,  minimum 
wage,  etc.  But  opposi- 
tion to  government  own- 
ership and  state  social- 
ism. 

Guild  organization  of  in- 
dustry, trade,  agriculture, 
and  professions,  to  be 
created  and  promoted  by 
state.  Inter-organization 
and  reconciliation  of  labor 
and  capital.  Functional 
representatio  n. 
Social  legislation  and  so- 
cial insurance  to  be  ad- 
ministered in  large  part 
by  guild  organizations. 

Maintained,  in 
so  far  as  com- 
patible    with 
moral  law  and 
social  welfare. 

"  Liberal  " 
economists, 
e.  g.,  A.  Le- 
roy-Beauheu, 
Yves  Guyot, 
C.  Jannet 

Less  radical.  Comprom- 
mise  between  "  liberal  " 
principle,  but  more  or 
less  grudgingly  conceded 
in  case  of  women  and 
children. 

Less  radical  program. 
Unions  to  be  free  and 
voluntary,  without  au- 
thority. 

More  emphasis 
on       economic 
liberty       and 
property  rights 

Social 
Reform  School 

Less  radical.  Comprom- 
ise between  "  liberal  " 
and  Social  Catholic  pro- 
grams. 

Less  radical.  Free  and 
voluntary  guilds.  Benev- 
olent action  of  employers. 

More  emphasis 

Action 
Franchise 

Less  radical.  Democratic 
social  legislation  a  delu- 
sion. Reorganization  of 
trades  under  influence  of 
monarchy  is  the  only 
solution. 

Guild  organization,  under 
patronage  of  monarchy. 
Class-conscious  opposition 
of  labor  to  capital. 

Liberty    to    be 
restricted. 
Inequality  of 
wealth  per- 
petuated. 

Christian 
Democrats 
(also  Sillon 
and   Young 
Republic) 

More  radical.  Political 
democracy  the  indispens- 
able instrument  of  social 
democracy.  Strong  pro- 
gram of  labor  legislation. 
For  protection  of  indi- 
vidual rather  than  for  or- 
ganic reform. 

Less  radical.  Parallel  or- 
ganization of  labor  and 
capital.  Less  emphasis 
on  organic  character  of 
reform. 

Limited  by 
social 
legislation. 

Socialists 
(t.  e.,  demo- 
cratic or  par- 
liamentary 
Socialists) 

More  radical.  Political 
democracy  the  main  in- 
strument of  reform.  La- 
bor legislation,  social  in- 
surance by  state,  govern- 
ment ownership. 

More  radical  but  less  im- 
portant. Would  expro- 
p  r  i  a  t  e  capitalist,  but 
would  leave  labor  organ- 
izations with  compara- 
tively small  functions, 
overshadowed  by  author- 
ity of  socialistic  state. 

Minimized. 

Syndicalists 

Repudiated  altogether. 

More  extreme.  "  Direct 
action  "  of  organized 
labor  to  achieve  social 
revolution,  _t.  e.,  destruc- 
tion of  capitalism  and  of 
wage-system. 

Minimized. 

Guild 
Socialists 

Democratic  social  legisla- 
tion. National  or  social 
ownership.  Func- 
tional representation. 

This   is   essentially   a  n 
and    State    Socialist    proj 
social  ownership  with  the 

Control  of  industry  by 
guilds. 

liddle   term   between   the 
jrams,    combining    the    lat 
former's  principle  of  guil 

Minimized. 

Social    Catholic 
ter's    thesis    of 
i  control. 

CONCLUSION 


385 


Political  action  and  social 
legislation 

Program   of   labor   organ- 
ization 

Protection     of 
private     prop- 
erty    and 
economic 
liberty 

Bolshevists  or 
Communists 

i 

More     radical.     Dictator- 
ship of  proletariat  as  rep- 
resented   by    soviet    form 
of    government.     State 
ownership  of  land,  indus- 
tries,   banks,     etc.     State 
monopoly  of  grain  trade, 
etc. 

Shop    committees;    indus- 
trial      and       agricultural 
councils,       Soviets,       etc. 
Capitalist      elimi- 
nated.    Control  by  soviet 
government. 

Most   property 
rights  de- 
stroyed. 
Liberty    sub- 
ject   to    dicta- 
torship of  pro- 
letariat. 

three  elements  is  given  more  emphasis,  or  a  different  twist,  the 
whole  program  takes  on  a  different  complexion.  For  instance, 
if  we  lay  more  emphasis  upon  economic  liberty,  we  have  a  con- 
servative program  such  as  that  of  the  "  liberal  "  economists  and 
the  Social  Reform  school.  By  stressing  political  action  one 
may  arrive  at  the  Christian  Democratic,  and,  ultimately,  at  the 
Socialist  program.  Again,  if  we  decide  that  the  purpose  of 
labor  organization  is  revolution,  rather  than  reform,  we  shall 
repudiate  social  legislation  and  adopt  the  Syndicalist  program. 

It  is  also  worth  noting  that  when  one  element  is  stressed,  the 
others  suffer.  Where  economic  liberty  is  prized  above  all 
things  else,  there  can  be  little  social  legislation  and  no  effective 
labor  organization.  Where  political  action  is  exalted,  as  with 
the  Socialists,  no  very  large  role  is  left  for  labor  organization 
and  individual  rights  tend  to  be  minimized.  Conversely,  the 
extreme  advocates  of  labor  action,  namely,  the  Syndicalists, 
repudiate  social  legislation  and  refuse  to  recognize  either  prop- 
erty-rights or  economic  liberty. 

Consequently,  each  of  the  other  programs  is  more  emphatic 
on  one  point,  and  less  so  on  one  or  both  of  the  others,  than  is 
the  Social  Catholic  program.  This  fact  makes  it  impossible 
to  assign  to  the  latter  its  proper  place  in  a  graduated  scale  of 
radicalism.  The  most  that  can  be  said  is  that  the  Social  Cath- 
olic program  aims  at  profound  and  far-reaching  economic  re- 
construction without  revolution,  and  that  it  is,  in  a  sense,  a 
synthesis  of  the  leading  ideas  that  have  been  put  forward  by 
each  of  the  opposing  schools  of  social  reform. 


386  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

OPINIONS  OF  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

We  must  not  have  any  illusions  on  this  score :  the  only  redoubt- 
able adversary, —  because  it  has  a  social  conception  and  is  a  party 
of  concessions, —  which  confronts  Revolutionary  Socialism  is  Cath- 
olic Reformism  [i.e.,  Social  Catholicism].1118 

Such  was  the  estimate  which  Hubert  Lagardelle,  one  of  the 
most  prominent  among  French  Socialist- Syndicalist  writers, 
placed  upon  the  importance  of  the  Social  Catholic  movement 
in  1898.  Fourteen  years  later,  Lagardelle  found  his  judgment 
of  the  vigor  of  the  movement  confirmed  by  events.  Writing 
in  Le  Mouvcment  socialiste  for  September-October,  1912,  La- 
gardelle says  of  the  "  Social  Catholics  " : 

The  Semaine  sociale  1119  of  Limoges  has  affirmed  the  vitality  of 
Social  Catholicism.  There  is  in  this  movement  an  intellectual 
fermentation  which  Socialism  no  longer  possesses.  It  is  its  strength. 
Let  us  recognize  it,  because  it  is  our  adversary.1120 

French  Radicals  likewise  recognize  that  the  Social  Catholic 
movement  is  attaining  such  formidable  proportions  that  its 
opponents  have  reason  for  alarm.  The  Radical  or  Radical- 
Socialist  journal,  Le  Rap  pel,  points  out  the  danger.  The  cler- 
ical victory  in  the  Belgian  elections  of  1912,  says  Le  Rappel, 
may  well  serve  as  a  warning  to  France: 

Despite  the  plural  vote,  despite  the  gerrymandering  of  electoral 
districts,  the  Belgian  clericals  would  not  have  carried  off  the  vic- 
tory if  the  Church  had  not  toiled  throughout  past  years,  with  as 
much  perseverance  as  sagacity,  to  conquer  democracy  by  its  bene- 
fits. But  by  the  boldness,  and,  in  a  sense,  the  generosity  of  its  so- 
cial policy,  it  has  extended  its  action  among  the  popular  classes  to 
the  point  of  disquieting  socialism  itself. 

That  is  what  we  should  meditate  upon  at  the  present  hour,  when, 
by  its  patronages  [workingmen's  friendly  societies],  by  its>  vaca- 
tion-colonies, by  its  people's  kitchens  and  its  workingmen's  gardens, 
by  its  trade  associations  and  its  trade  unions,  by  the  admirable 
work  of  its  " Semaine 's  sociales"  [social-study  congresses],  the 
Church  is  striving  in  France  as  elsewhere  to  effect  the  conquest  of 
the  proletariat.  .  .  .  The  day  when,  even  in  parliament,  the  Radical 


CONCLUSION  387 

party  will  find  itself  in  conflict  with  two  "  social "  parties,  one 
Catholic  and  the  other  Socialist,  what  will  it  do?  And  how  will  it 
become  again  the  party  of  the  people,  as  it  was  formerly,  if  the 
masses  are  divided  between  the  Church  and  the  Revolution? 

It  will  still  have,  of  course,  the  resource  of  political  oratory,  but 
it  seems  truly  that  the  time  for  that  is  past,  in  France  as  in  Bel- 
gium.1121 

From  an  opposite  quarter,  namely,  from  the  camp  of  the 
clerical  antagonists  of  Social  Catholicism,  are  heard  similar 
expressions  of  alarm  at  the  progress  and  direction  of  the  move- 
ment. Gaston  Defoyere,  in  a  polemic  entitled  "  The  Syndical- 
ist Revolution  Promoted  by  the  '  Social  Catholics/  " 1122  sets 
forth  the  thesis  that  the  Social  Catholic  movement  has  become 
an  exceedingly  dangerous  ally  of  Revolutionary  Syndicalism. 
His  argument  is  after  this  manner.  "  The  Republic  had  been 
founded  and  maintained  contrary  to  and  against  the  will  of 
the  nation."  The  Republicans,  determined  to  eradicate  the  old 
traditions  in  society  as  well  as  in  government,  and  resolved  to 
advance  ever  further  in  their  innovations,  soon  arrived  at  the 
idea  of  state  socialism.  Catholics  protested,  especially  against 
the  application  of  the  state-socialist  idea  to  education,  but  were 
not  sufficiently  on  their  guard  against  economic  state  socialism. 
Count  Albert  de  Mun,  notably,  in  the  late  'eighties  and  early 
'nineties,  made  "  imprudent "  speeches  accentuating  the  state- 
socialist  idea  of  "  labor  as  a  -social  function."  "  An  entire 
Catholic  social  school  then  followed  the  penchant  toward  state 
socialism ;  today  that  school  is  integrally  Syndicalist." 1123 
The  action  of  these  "  Social  Catholics "  is  "  demoralizing," 
not  merely  from  the  point  of  view  of  "  sound  doctrine  " ;  their 
action  "  has  been  in  fact  noxious  and  revolutionary  for  the  past 
twelve  years."  In  short,  "  they  have  become  the  effective, 
blind  accomplices  of  the  subverters  of  traditional  values." 
The  latest  and  "  most  dangerous  "  form  of  Revolution,  De- 
foyere adds,  is  that  of  "  integral  Syndicalism  promoted  by  the 
Social  Catholics."  1124 

Having  quoted  first  the  opinions  of  adversaries,  perhaps  it 


388  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

is  only  fair  to  give  the  supporters  of  the  movement  a  hearing. 
Fidao-Justiniani,  in  Le  Mouvement  social  (the  chief  Social 
Catholic  review),  asserts: 

With  a  movement  that  is  very  slow,  perhaps,  but  also  very  sure, 
"  Social  Catholicism  " —  doctrine  and  action  —  gains  ground,  imposes 
itself  upon  the  attention  of  our  contemporaries,  wins  their  suf- 
frages. 

This  is  his  preface  to  a  general  review  of  books  published 
during  the  year  1911.  Even  Socialist  and  Syndicalist  writers, 
Fidao-Justiniani  observes,  are  devoting  attention  to  the  move- 
ment. The  Syndicalist  theorist,  Lagardelle,  in  a  book  on  Le 
Socialisme  ouvrier,  seems  "  dazzled  "  by  the  brilliance  of  the 
latest  Social  Catholic  convention.  Georges  Guy-Grand,  in  his 
Le  Proces  de  la  Democratic,  discusses  the  "  generous  and  vague 
Christianity  "  of  the  so-called  Social  Catholics ;  if  Guy-Grand 
had  familiarized  himself  with  the  Social  Catholic  review  — 
Le  Mouvement  social  —  or  with  the  recent  publications  of  So- 
cial Catholic  writers  on  the  most  detailed  problems  of  industry 
and  social  legislation,  says  the  reviewer,  he  would  not  have  used 
the  adjective  "  vague,"  at  any  rate.  Fidao-Justiniani  concludes 
his  article  with  a  confident  declaration  that,  while  Socialism 
and  Syndicalism  are  breaking  up  into  cross-currents  and  losing 
headway,  Catholic  Reformism  or  Social  Catholicism  is  ever 
advancing,  united,  strong  in  its  logic  and  its  principles.1125 

Professor  Max  Turmann,  another  Social  Catholic  writer, 
and  member  of  the  Academy,  agrees  with  the  Syndicalist  La- 
gardelle that  the  Social  Catholic  movement  is  the  only  formid- 
able rival  of  revolutionary  collectivism: 

Social  Catholicism  constitutes,  in  the  modern  world,  a  powerful 
force,  which,  by  reason  of  its  intensity  and  its  diversity,  may  be 
compared,  and  almost  everywhere  is  opposed,  to  revolutionary  col- 
lectivism.1126 

Finally,  Joseph  Zamanski,  one  of  the  leading  figures  in 
French  Social  Catholicism,  discusses  the  contribution  of  the 
movement  to  the  progress  of  French  social  legislation.  The 


CONCLUSION  389 

following  long  extract  from  one  of  his  articles,  is  interesting 
enough  to  be  worth  quoting: 

.  .  .  The  resistance  which  every  social  law  encounters  in  the 
country  and  in  parliament  comes  from  minds  in  which  the  principles 
of  1791  have  left  their  stubborn  imprint,  and  the  best  of  these  laws 
we  have  to  wrest  by  sheer  strength  from  the  tenacious  thought  of 
a  regime  of  bourgeois  ensconced  in  power. 

I  do  not  say  that  some  Catholics,  in  industry  or  in  Parliament, 
do  not  sometimes  lend  them  [the  opponents  of  social  legislation] 
assistance ;  we  have  had  to  signalize,  in  these  pages,  inconceivable 
opposition,  also  the  survival  of  the  old  orthodox  Liberalism,  the 
power  of  prejudice  and  of  blind  interest.  All  the  same,  the  ini- 
tiators are  in  our  ranks,  when  they  are  not  among  the  Socialists. 
The  first  idea,  the  first  bill,  the  first  text,  the  first  legislative  effort 
comes  from  the  Right  [clericals]  or  from  the  Left  [Socialists]. 
And  when  the  reform  has  won  the  support  of  public  opinion,  when 
various  studies  have  perfected  it,  a  Government  Bill  appears  which 
hardly  conceals  the  original  label,  obtains  the  vote,  and  reaps  the 
honor.  How  many  of  them  during  the  past  thirty  years  have  had 
for  their  first  and  true  signature  the  name  of  M.  de  Mun  or  of 
one  of  his  friends ! 

It  was  M.  de  Mun  who,  in  1885,  with  Mgr.  Freppel,  presented  a 
bill  on  workingmen's  pensions.  The  first  text  on  the  regulation 
of  wages  in  sweated  industries  was  also  his  work,  and  public 
opinion  had  been  apprised  of  the  wretchedness  which  this  form 
of  industry  engenders,  by  the  books  of  Abbe  Meny,  quite  a  long 
time  before  the  official  investigation  was  instituted  to  reveal  cer- 
tain details  and  elaborations  of  the  facts.  The  workingmen's 
gardens,  with  which  the  Government  announces  its  intention  to 
concern  itself,  have  existed  for  twenty  years  and  their  initiator, 
Abbe  Lemire,  is  also  the  father  of  the  family  patrimony  [bien  de 
fatnille]. 

The  Government  Bills  themselves  are  elaborated,  discussed,  re- 
viewed, and  perfected  in  private  associations  like  the  Society  for 
Legislative  Research  or  the  Association  for  the  Legal  Protection  of 
the  Workingmen,  in  which  Catholics  like  M.  Lorin  play  an  impor- 
tant part;  and  it  is  the  Superior  Council  of  Labor,  where  so  many 
times  the  weight  has  been  felt  of  M.  Jay's  competent  and  generous 
words,  which  furnishes  the  texts  later  stamped  with  approval  by 
the  Office  of  Labor. 

Then,  when  the  Bill  has  become  law,  it  finds  in  our  social  school 
its  most  sincere  defenders,  champions  who  regard  the  Bill's  defects 
with  clear  vision  and  without  complacency.  Is  it  not  right  that, 


39°  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

some  day,  we  should  receive  credit  for  our  efforts  to  acclimatize 
pension  legislation  while  improving  it? 

But  with  that  as  with  other  matters,  gratitude  is  ephemeral,  when 
it  is  given  at  all.  The  part  which  M.  de  Mun  has  so  proudly 
claimed  in  the  patriotic  work  which  France  has  begun  to  inaugurate, 
we  can  claim  also  in  the  social  work  of  the  "  republican  reign." 
For  that  as  for  the  other  we  are  rewarded  by  persecution ;  it  is  a 
coinage  familiar  to  us ;  for  us,  it  has  been  current  coinage  through- 
out history,  but  history  is  in  itself  our  magnificent  recompense. 

Today,  in  the  endeavors  and  struggles  for  the  amelioration  of 
the  general  conditions  of  labor,  we  are  forming  the  true  policy  for 
tomorrow.  This  social  policy  will  in  the  end  vanquish  the  last 
traces  of  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  old  Revolution.  But,  in  all 
probability,  it  will  set  two  doctrines  in  opposition,  one  which  will 
draw  from  the  ever  vernal  sap  of  Catholicism  its  principles  and 
its  strength,  the  other  which  will  attempt  to  rear  on  the  ruins  of 
the  "  Republican  Party,"  the  new  Revolution.1127 

The  gist  of  all  these  commentaries  on  the  significance  of  the 
Social  Catholic  Movement  in  France, —  commentaries  inspired 
by  such  diverse  preconceptions  and  prejudices, —  is  that  the 
movement  is  the  one  great  potential  and  actual  rival  of  revo- 
lutionary Socialism ;  according  to  the  Social  Catholics,  the  move- 
ment is,  by  reason  of  its  soundness  of  doctrine  and  vigor  of 
growth,  the  unique  bulwark  against  the  erroneous  and  destruc- 
tive propaganda  of  the  revolutionary  parties,  while  according 
to  the  revolutionaries  themselves  and  in  the  view  of  the  clerical 
reactionaries,  the  movement  is  misguided,  an  unwitting  ac- 
complice of  Socialism  or  of  Syndicalism.  Between  these  two 
views,  the  reader  is  left  to  judge  for  himself.  But  on  one  point 
there  seems  to  be  virtual  agreement,  namely,  that  the  Social 
Catholic  movement  is  vigorous,  that  it  is  a  force  of  such  mag- 
nitude that  it  is  either  a  great  peril  or  a  great  hope. 

GUILDISM,  GUILD  SOCIALISM,  AND  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC 
PROGRAM 

One  feature  of  the  Social  Catholic  program  has  been  rendered 
particularly  significant  by  the  trend  of  events  during  and  since 
the  war.  A  generation  ago,  the  Social  Catholics  were  almost 
if  not  absolutely  alone  in  advocating  the  reconstruction  of  in- 


CONCLUSION  391 

dustrial  society  on  the  basis  of  the  guild.  When  Count  Albert 
de  Mun,  in  the  'eighties,  defended  the  principle  of  guildism, 
he  found  few  sympathetic  auditors  in  the  French  Chamber  of 
Deputies.  The  very  word,  "  guild,"  was  abhorrent  to  Liberals 
and  Socialists  alike.  Since  1914,  however,  there  has  been  a 
veritable  revolution  in  public  sentiment.  Ideas  which  were 
formerly  almost  the  exclusive  property  of  the  Social  Catholic 
movement  have  become  popular  over  night. 

The  full  import  of  this  change  of  sentiment  can  hardly  be 
grasped  unless  one  views  it  in  historical  perspective.  To 
measure  the  magnitude  of  the  contemporary  swing  of  the 
pendulum  towards  guildism  and  similar  forms  of  democratic 
industrial  organization,  one  must  trace  the  course  of  the  pen- 
dulum back  to  the  opposite  extreme.  What  more  striking 
contrast  could  be  conceived  than  that  between  present-day 
ideas  concerning  industrial  organization  and  the  ideas  be- 
queathed to  the  nineteenth  century  by  the  French  Revolution? 
Historians  have  not  sufficiently  emphasized  the  fact  that  the 
French  Revolution  was  directed  against  guildism,  against  any 
form  of  trade-unionism,  as  well  as  against  feudalism.  Dur- 
ing the  Revolution,  the  Constituent  Assembly  did  not  merely 
sweep  away  the  old  guild  system  (by  the  law  of  March  2-17, 
1791 )  ;  it  formally  sanctioned  the  doctrine  that  "  the  annihila- 
tion of  all  kinds  of  guilds  of  citizens  belonging  to  the  same 
social  class  and  trade  is  one  of  the  fundamental  bases  of  the 
French  Constitution  "  (the  Le  Chapelier  Law  of  June  14-17, 
1791).  There  should  be  no  trade  unions,  no  special  group  in- 
terests, but  only  individual  interests  and  "  the  general  interest," 
said  the  author  of  the  latter  law.  Workingmen  of  the  same 
class  or  trade  were  forbidden,  under  severe  penalties,  to  as- 
semble together,  organize,  elect  officers,  or  adopt  resolutions 
regarding  "  their  pretended  common  interests."  Confirmed  in 
a  slightly  modified  form  by  the  Napoleonic  Penal  Code  of 
1810,  this  principle  was  handed  down  to  the  nineteenth  century 
as  one  of  the  legacies  of  the  French  Revolution.  Liberty,  as 
interpreted  by  the  heirs  of  the  Revolution,  was  irreconcilable 
with  guildism  or  any  other  form  of  trade  organization.1128 


392  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Thus  compulsory  industrial  individualism, —  compulsory  in- 
dustrial anarchy  one  might  say, —  was  the  position  from  which 
the  pendulum  had  to  swing.  And  it  has  swung  far. 

Though  they  could  hardly  have  foreseen  clearly  the  turn 
events  would  take,  the  Catholics  who  advocated  a  return  to 
guildism,  in  the  heyday  of  economic  individualism,  were  an- 
ticipating and  in  a  measure  promoting  one  of  the  most  pro- 
found social  metamorphoses  of  modern  times,  namely,  the  re- 
placement of  anarchic  individualism  by  unionism  or  organiza- 
tion in  industry.  As  early  as  1834,  Villeneuve-Bargemont, 
one  of  the  precursors  of  the  Social  Catholic  movement,  out- 
lined a  plan  for  the  formation  of  workingmen's  unions  in  each 
trade,  as  a  substitute  for  the  guilds  which  the  Revolution  had 
destroyed.1129  Guildism  is  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  char- 
acteristic elements  in  the  Social  Catholic  program. 

The  specific  reforms  which  have  been  advocated  by  the  So- 
cial Catholic  leaders  as  steps  toward  a  new  guild  regime  may 
be  recapitulated  under  four  heads,  (i)  Trade-unionism.  In 
the  early  years  of  the  Third  Republic,  before  trade-unionism 
had  been  legalized,  the  Social  Catholics  were  among  the  most 
outspoken  champions  of  the  right  of  organization.  After 
helping  to  secure  the  enactment  of  the  historic  law  of  1884, 
by  which  incomplete  legal  sanction  was  given  to  trade  unions, 
they  demanded  still  further  legal  rights  for  the  unions.1130. 

(2)  Mixed  Unions  and  Joint  Councils.     The  trade  union, 
in  the  Social  Catholic  scheme  of  things,  was  to  become  not  an 
instrument  of  class-warfare,  but  an  agent  of  class-reconcilia- 
tion.    During   the   'eighties,   many    Social   Catho!ics    favored 
mixed  unions,  i.  e.,  trade  unions  including  employers  and  salar- 
ied employees  as  well  as  workingmen.     As  it  became  manifest 
that  such  unions  were  impracticable,  the  Social  Catholics  ad- 
vocated the  establishment  of  joint  councils  or  boards  to  serve 
as  bridges  between  the  trade  union  and  the  employer  or  the  em- 
ployers' union.1131 

(3)  Guilds.     In  a  Bill  presented  to  the  Chamber  of  Depu- 
ties in  1906  by  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  M.  Jacques  Piou,  and 
other  prominent  Social  Catholic  members  of  the  Popular  Lib- 


CONCLUSION  393 

eral  Party,  a  plan  was  offered  for  the  creation  of  trade  organ- 
izations on  a  more  elaborate  scale.1132  In  each  commune,  the 
mayor  and  two  municipal  councillors  were  to  draw  up  a  list 
of  trades,  a  sort  of  economic  census.  Every  resident  over 
eighteen  years  of  age  and  engaged  in  agriculture,  industry, 
commerce,  or  the  liberal  professions,  was  to  have  his  name  in- 
scribed in  the  appropriate  list  according  to  his  occupation. 
All  the  inscribed  members  of  each  trade  or  occupational  group 
would  then  be  considered  members  of  an  occupational  corps 
(corps  professional}  or,  as  we  may  style  it,  a  guild.  The 
guild  would  be  made  co-extensive  with  a  smaller  or  a  larger 
administrative  unit,  from  the  canton  to  the  departement,  ac- 
cording to  the  number  of  its  members.  Inside  the  guild,  volun- 
tary trade  unions  of  employers  or  of  workingmen  were  to  be 
freely  permitted,  even  encouraged. 

It  should  be  observed  that  the  guild  was  to  include  not  the 
wage-earners  alone,  as  does  the  ordinary  trade  union,  but  all 
the  classes  engaged  in  the  occupation.  Independent  farmers, 
tenant-farmers,  and  farm  laborers,  for  example,  would  belong 
to  the  same  agricultural  guild,  or,  rather,  to  separate  sections 
of  the  same  guild.  An  industrial  guild  would  include,  or- 
dinarily, three  sections:  (a)  employers  or  capitalists,  (b) 
salaried  officials,  technicians,  managers,  and  clerks,  (c)  wage- 
earners  or  proletarians.  Each  of  these  three  sections  would 
elect  separately  an  equal  number  of  representatives  who  would 
constitute  a  conseil  professionnel  or  guild  council.  Where 
trade  unions  existed  within  the  guild,  they  were  to  have  the 
right  of  electing  a  share  of  the  representation  of  their  section ; 
in  fact,  they  were  to  be  given  more  representatives  than  strict 
arithmetical  proportion  would  justify,  because  belonging  to  a 
union  was  considered  a  meritorious  manifestation  of  social- 
mindedness. 

The  functions  assigned  to  the  guild  councils  by  the  Bill  of 
1906,  are  suggestive.  Subject  to  the  general  prescriptions 
of  national  legislation,  each  guild  council  was  to  have  charge 
of  vocational  training,  shop  regulations,  the  conditions  and 
terms  of  labor,  and  welfare  institutions.  The  various  forms  of 


394  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

social  insurance, —  against  sickness,  accident,  unemployment, 
and  old  age, —  were  to  be  taken  over  ultimately  by  the  guilds 
or  by  insurance  societies  supported  by  the  guilds.  By  such 
decentralization,  it  was  hoped,  social  insurance  would  be 
rendered  cheaper  and  more  efficacious,  while  the  danger  of 
bureaucracy  would  be  avoided.  Arbitration  of  collective  dis- 
putes would  likewise  devolve  upon  the  guild  councils.  Finally, 
the  councils  were  to  be  given  a  voice  in  labor  legislation.  Labor 
laws  enacted  by  the  national  government  should  be  drafted  in 
general  terms  and  referred  to  the  interested  guild  councils  for 
criticism  before  being  promulgated.  The  general  provisions 
of  national  laws  should  be  executed  by  means  of  specific  regu- 
lations devised  by  each  guild  council  to  suit  the  peculiar  con- 
ditions of  its  locality  and  its  trade.  Such  regulations  must 
be  approved  by  a  referendum  vote  of  the  guild  members. 

The  essential  ideas  back  of  these  provisions  are  three:  that 
the  workingmen  are  entitled  to  a  voice  in  the  regulation  of 
their  trade  interests ;  that  by  bringing  together  workingmen, 
employers,  clerks,  technicians,  and  managers  engaged  in  the 
same  industry  or  occupation,  misunderstandings  might  be 
minimized  while  a  sense  of  solidarity  and  pride  of  profession 
might  be  revived ;  and  that  the  national  government  is  too 
clumsy  and  bureaucratic  an  authority  to  assume  with  safety 
the  complete  control  of  social  insurance,  labor  legislation,  and 
industrial  regulation. 

(4)  Functional  Representation.  The  guild  organization 
just  described  would  provide  a  basis  for  what  is  now  called 
functional  representation,  that  is,  the  representation  of  the  in- 
terests which  people  have  by  reason  of  the  function  or  economic 
occupation  in  which  they  are  engaged.  According  to  this 
theory,  the  farmer  should  be  represented  as  a  farmer,  not 
merely  as  a  Republican  living  in  a  certain  geographical  dis- 
trict ;  the  merchant  should  be  able  to  elect  a  merchant  to  repre- 
sent his  interests ;  and  the  miner  should  have  the  opportunity 
of  voting  for  a  miner.  This  has  been  a  favorite  idea  with 
French  Social  Catholics.  The  existing  politico-geographical 
system  of  representation  would  not  be  destroyed;  it  was  to 


CONCLUSION  395 

be  coordinated  with  the  new  system  of  functional  representa- 
tion. Thus,  alongside  of  the  existing  Senate  and  Chamber  of 
Deputies  a  new  body  might  be  created,  a  Guild  Congress,  elected 
by  the  guilds.  Or  possibly,  it  was  suggested,  the  Senate  might 
be  transformed  into  a  Guild  Congress  or  Professional  Senate. 
Such  a  Guild  Congress  might  at  first  be  given  merely  advisory 
powers;  in  course  of  time,  it  might  share  legislative  authority 
with  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  as  the  Senate  does  today.  This 
innovation,  it  was  believed,  would  bring  politics  into  a  closer 
and  more  vital  relation  with  the  nation's  economic  life,  and 
would  provide  the  mechanism  for  really  expert  criticism  of 
economic  legislation.1133 

Not  many  years  back,  such  proposals  might  have  seemed 
visionary  in  the  extreme.  Today,  they  are  in  accord  with 
powerful  tendencies  which  manifest  themselves  spontaneously 
in  all  highly  industrialized  countries,  under  the  pressure  of 
post-war  conditions.  The  industrial  conferences  held  in  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States  under  governmental  auspices, 
for  the  discussion  of  labor  problems,  exhibit  the  strength  of 
the  desire  for  the  kind  of  expert  opinion  which  the  proposed 
Guild  Congress  or  Guild  Senate  would  provide.  When,  in 
response  to  an  imperative  popular  demand,  the  French  Govern- 
ment decided  to  establish  the  eight-hour  day,  the  minister  of 
labor  invited  and  obtained  the  assistance  of  representatives  of 
capital  and  labor  (the  French  delegates  to  the  International 
Labor  Legislation  Committee  of  the  Peace  Conference)  in 
drafting  an  eight-hour-day  Bill.  The  Bill,  moreover,  was 
framed  in  such  a  manner  that  it  could  be  adapted  to  local  and 
special  conditions  after  consultation  with  the  interested  or- 
ganizations of  capitalists  and  workingmen.  M.  Jean  Lerolle,  a 
Social  Catholic  deputy,  observed  that  the  innovation  of  dele- 
gating a  certain  amount  of  quasi-legislative  power  to  the  trade 
organizations,  as  was  done  by  the  Bill,  "  might  seem  rash 
to  certain  minds  accustomed  to  the  old  administrative  formulae, 
but  none  will  applaud  it  more  than  we.  It  is  simply  the  ap- 
plication of  a  principle  which  has  long  been  supported  by  our 
friends :  the  principle  of  labor  legislation  by  representatives  of 


396  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

occupational  groups  (legislation  professionnelle  du  tra- 
wiJ).""84 

Similarly,  the  Social  Catholic  idea  of  bringing  workingmen 
and  capitalists  together  by  means  of  joint  trade  boards  or  by 
means  of  guilds  has  been  realized,  to  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
by  numerous  recent  experiments.  Of  their  own  initiative, 
a  number  of  employers  in  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States 
have  instituted  joint  boards,  on  which  workingmen  and  em- 
ployers are  both  represented.  The  "  Plumb  Plan "  for  the 
American  railroads  embodied  the  same  fundamental  principle 
in  more  radical  form.  In  England,  the  Whitley  Councils  pro- 
vide another  indication  of  the  same  tendency.  The  events  of 
September  and  October,  1920,  in  Italy  afford  an  even  more  in- 
teresting parallel.  After  the  metal-workers  had  seized  five 
hundred  or  more  factories,  an  agreement  was  reached,  at  the 
instance  of  the  Government,  for  the  establishment  of  joint 
councils  to  supervise  the  books  of  the  metallurgical  firms. 
Whether  this  agreement  will  lead  to  a  thoroughgoing  system 
of  democratic  control,  or  will  be  rendered  abortive  by  the  ex- 
tremists on  either  side,  cannot  well  be  predicted,  but  the  proposi- 
tion itself  is  significant. 

In  Germany,  the  idea  has  been  carried  further  since  the 
democratic  revolution  of  1918.  In  the  new  German  Republic, 
the  Catholic  party  joined  with  the  Majority  Socialists  and 
Democrats  to  form  a  moderate  coalition  government,  which  op- 
posed both  extreme  Socialists  on  one  hand  and  reactionaries 
on  the  other  hand.  As  a  result,  the  party  had  a  voice  in  de- 
termining the  constitution  and  policies  of  the  new  German  Re- 
public. The  constitution  adopted  on  July  31,  1919,  represents 
a  compromise  between  Socialist  and  Social  Catholic  ideas  re- 
garding economic  organization.  By  article  156,  the  Common- 
wealth is  empowered  to  transfer  private  business  enterprises 
to  public  ownership.  This  is  essentially  a  Socialist  clause. 
The  same  article,  however,  authorizes  the  Commonwealth  to 
combine  business  enterprises  and  "  give  to  employers  and  em- 
ployees a  share  in  the  management."  Moreover,  Article  165 
is  astonishingly  similar  to  the  French  Social  Catholic  Bill  of 


CONCLUSION  397 

1906,  and  to  the  ideas  which  have  been  put  forward  for  many 
years  past  by  Social  Catholics  in  other  countries.  By  Article 
165,  "  wage-earners  and  salaried  employees  are  qualified  to 
cooperate  on  equal  terms  with  the  employers  in  the  regulation 
of  wages  and  working  conditions,  as  well  as  in  the  entire 
economic  development  of  the  productive  forces."  The  wage- 
earners,  the  article  continues,  and  the  salaried  employees  "  are 
entitled  "  to  form  local  workers'  councils  for  each  establish- 
ment, the  local  councils  being  federated  under  a  district  work- 
ers' council  for  each  "  economic  area  "  and  a  "  National  Work- 
ers' Council "  for  the  commonwealth  as  a  whole.  The  district 
workers'  councils  meet  with  representatives  of  the  employers 
and  of  other  interested  classes  in  "  district  economic  councils." 
In  the  same  way,  the  National  Economic  Council  is  formed 
by  the  addition  of  employers  to  the  National  Workers'  Coun- 
cil. All  "  substantial  vocational  groups  "  are  to  be  represented 
in  the  district  and  national  economic  councils  "  according  to 
their  economic  and  social  importance."  In  this  fashion,  the 
familiar  Social  Catholic  idea  of  bringing  the  various  industrial 
classes  —  employers,  middle-class  employees,  and  workingmen 
—  together  in  joint  councils  is  realized.  The  functions  of  the 
councils  likewise  are  in  accordance  with  Social  Catholic  prin- 
ciples. To  the  local  and  district  councils  "  supervisory  and  ad- 
ministrative functions  may  be  delegated."  The  National 
Economic  Council  is  a  sort  of  Guild  Congress,  possessing  the 
right  to  propose  Bills  and  to  consider,  before  they  are  intro- 
duced into  the  National  Assembly,  all  important  drafts  of  laws 
relating  to  social  and  economic  policy.  Reading  such  provi- 
sions, one  is  strongly  reminded  of  the  Bill  presented  in  1906 
by  de  Mun  and  his  friends.1135 

The  young  English  Guild  Socialist  movement  is  a  particu- 
larly interesting  manifestation  of  the  drift  of  opinion  towards 
guildism.  The  principles  of  Guild  Socialism  had  been  ex- 
pounded, in  the  period  immediately  preceding  the  Great  War, 
by  S.  G.  Hobson,  A.  J.  Penty,  A.  R.  Orage,  and  a  few  others. 
The  New  Age,  although  not  an  official  organ,  served  as  a  ve- 
hicle for  Guild  Socialist  ideas.  Enthusiastic  and  able  young 


398  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

recruits,  notably  G.  D.  H.  Cole,  gave  intensity  and  vigor  to  the 
new  movement,  if,  indeed,  it  could  be  called  a  movement. 
During  the  war  a  National  Guilds  League  was  organized  and 
the  "  guild  idea  "  was  spread  with  phenomenal  rapidity,  for  the 
most  part  among  the  younger  generation  of  intellectuals  in- 
terested in  the  labor  movement.  To  an  extraordinary  extent, 
considering  its  novelty,  Guild  Socialism  attracted  and  influ- 
enced trade-union  leaders.  Without  attempting  seriously  to 
build  up  a  separate  and  distinct  party,  the  Guild  Socialists  suc- 
ceeded in  giving  new  form  to  the  ideas  of  the  leaders  of  labor. 
The  Annual  Report  of  the  National  Guilds  League  for  1919- 
1920  claims  that,  "  so  far  as  the  Trade  Union  movement  is 
concerned  .  .  .  the  guild  is  everywhere  coming  to  be  more  and 
more  consciously  accepted  as  the  goal  of  the  workers'  efforts 
and  the  governing  conception  of  their  policy."  This  seemed 
to  be  particularly  true  of  the  miners  and  of  the  building  trades. 

There  are  many  striking  similarities  between  the  English 
Guild  Socialist  program  and  the  program  which  the  French 
Social  Catholics  have  long  advocated.  Both  are  based  upon 
the  guild.  Both  propose  to  create  a  guild  congress  which  will 
share  authority  with  the  democratic  "  political "  parliament. 
Both  repudiate  economic  individualism.  Both  oppose  State 
Socialism.  There  is,  however,  one  essential  difference.  The 
Guild  Socialist  proposes  to  eliminate  the  capitalist  altogether 
by  establishing  national  ownership  of  productive  capital  and 
abolishing  the  wage  system,  whereas  the  French  Social  Catholic 
would  make  a  place  for  the  capitalist  within  the  guild  system, 
at  least  for  the  present.  The  Guild  Socialist,  therefore,  is 
more  of  a  revolutionist;  he  is  a  Socialist  as  well  as  a  Guilds- 
man.  He  has  less  faith,  if  any,  in  the  possibility  or  desirabil- 
ity of  reconciling  capitalist  and  proletarian.1136 

The  Guild  Socialist  movement  is  mentioned  as  an  additional 
indication  of  the  strong  current  of  opinion  towards  principles 
akin  to  the  principles  of  the  Social  Catholic  movement.  The 
point  which  it  has  been  the  aim  of  this  section  to  emphasize  is 
not  that  the  Social  Catholic  program  has  been  proved  right  or 
wrong  by  recent  events,  but  that  it  has  been  demonstrated  to 


CONCLUSION  399 

be  more  vital  and  more  significant  than  one  might  have  predicted 
a  generation  ago. 

Whether  its  program  is  right  or  wrong,  menacing  or  re- 
assuring, the  Social  Catholic  movement  undoubtedly  constitutes 
an  important  factor  in  the  post-war  situation.  Because  of  its 
numerical  strength,  its  political  influence,  and  its  intellectual 
vigor,  the  movement  may  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most 
formidable  elements  in  the  coalition  recently  formed  against 
Bolshevism  in  France.  Conservative  in  this  respect,  it  is  rad- 
ical in  its  demands  for  a  thoroughgoing  reconstruction  of  so- 
ciety and  of  government  on  the  basis  of  industrial  democracy, 
as  embodied  in  the  guild.  Likewise  in  Italy,  in  Austria,  in 
Germany,  and  in  other  countries  where  large  Catholic  popula- 
tions exist,  the  Social  Catholic  movement  in  general  is  to  be 
found  opposing  Bolshevism  and  promoting  social  reform. 
Originating  as  a  reaction  against  the  economic  individualism 
so  generally  associated,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  with  political 
liberalism,  the  Social  Catholic  movement  has  become,  in  the 
twentieth  century,  one  of  the  strong  forces  making  for  demo- 
cratic social  progress.  As  opposed  to  destructive  revolution, 
it  strives  for  constructive  reforms.  It  is  a  practical  effort  to 
realize  in  both  economic  and  political  life  the  Christian  ideals 
of  justice  and  liberty  and  the  dignity  of  man. 


APPENDIX 

1  Interim  Report  on  Joint  Standing  Industrial  Councils,  submitted  by 
the  sub-committee   (on  Relations  between  Employers  and  Employed) 
of  the  Reconstruction  Committee,  March  8,  1917,  Parliamentary  Papers, 
1917-1918,  Cd.  8606.     Cf.  Kellogg  and  Gleason,  British  Labor  and  the 
War  (N.  Y.,  1919),  pp.  185-194,  418-448. 

2  M.  Jouhaix,  secretary  of  the  Confederation  Generate  du  Travail, 
claimed  that  there  were  400,000  dues-paying  members  and,  in  reality, 
600,000  adherents,  in   1912.    Opponents  of  the  C.  G.  T.   regard  these 
figures    as    exaggerated;    cf.    Annee   sociale    Internationale    1913-1914 
(Rheims,  1914),  pp.  530-31.     In  his  book  on  The  Labor  Movement  in 
France   (N.  Y.,   1912),  pp.   181,   191-192,  Dr.  Louis  Levine  gives  the 
total  membership  of  the  C.  G.  T.  as  357,814  in  1910,  and  leaves  the 
reader  to  judge  the  accuracy  of  M.   Pawlowski's  claim  that  approx- 
imately  five-eighths   of   these   members   repudiate   revolutionary   Syn- 
dicalism, as  contrasted  with  the  opposing  claim  that  the  Syndicalists 
have  a  two-thirds  majority  in  the  C.  G.  T.    Admitting  the  latter  claim, 
we  would  arrive  at  something  like  266,000  as  the  maximum  estimate  of 
the  number  of  revolutionary  Syndicalists. 

3  Jacques,  Les  Partis  politiques  sous  la  Troisicme  Rcpublique  (Paris, 
1913),   PP-  3O9,  336,   supplemented  by   information   obtained   at   party 
headquarters  in  Paris. 

4  It   is  impossible   to   calculate   the  voting  strength   of   the   Popular 
Liberal  Party  in  the  elections  of  1919,  because,  under  the  new  system 
of  proportional  representation,  the  Liberals  frequently  supported  fusion 
tickets.     The  Socialist  vote,  according  to  official  returns,  was  approx- 
imately  1,615,000.     For   the   figures    cited,    the   author   is   indebted   to 
Georges  Lachapelle's  book,  Les  Elections  legislatives  du  6  Novembre 
1919   (Paris,  1920),  and  to  personal  correspondence. 

5  The  British  Trade  Boards  Act,  1909,  concerning  certain  "  sweated  " 
trades,  is  a  case  in  point. 

6 " '  Social  politics '  thus  becomes  a  convenient  phrase  to  indicate, 
loosely  perhaps,  the  present-day  development  of  political  democracy 
and  its  utilization  for  social  purposes."  —  C.  Hayes,  British  Social 
Politics  (Boston,  1913),  p.  3. 

7  A  good  mental  picture  of  the  Industrial  Revolution  in  France  may 
be  obtained  by  comoarinsr  J.  A.  C.  de  Chaotal,  De  I'industric  franc.aise 
(Paris,    1819)  ;    Villerme,    Tableau    de    I'etat   physique    et    moral   des 
ouvriers  .  .  .   (Paris,  1840)  ;  and  E.  Levasseur,  Comparison  du  travail 
a  la  main  et  le  travail  a  la  machine  (Paris,  1900).     For  a  narrative  and 
discussion,  see  Levasseur,  Histoire  des  classes  ouvricres  et  de  I'indus- 
trie  en  France  de  1789  &  1870  (Paris,  1004). 

8  According  to  Weill,  La  France  sous  la  monarchic  constitutionnelle 
{1815-1848}    (Paris,  new  ed.,  1912),  p.  222,  there  were  200  steam-en- 

400 


APPENDIX  401 

gines  in  1820;  572  in  1830;  3,053  in  1843.  According  to  M.  Block, 
Statistique  de  la  France  (Paris,  1875),  vol.  ii,  p.  140,  there  were  2,873 
in  1840;  4,019  in  1843;  6,832  in  1850;  18,726  in  1860.  According  to  E. 
Levasseur,  Histoire  des  classes  ouvrieres  .  .  .  de  1789  a  1870,  vol.  ii,  p. 
171,  there  were  2,591  in  1840;  3,360  in  1843.  I  have  given  approximate 
round  figures  in  the  text,  since  the  exact  figures  are  of  no  great  in- 
terest in  this  connection,  and  in  the  presence  of  conflicting  statements, 
any  new  figures  claiming  precision  would  require  an  extensive  exposi- 
tion by  way  of  support. 

9  Levasseur,  loc.  cit. 

10  Levasseur,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  p.  628 ;  Block,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  322- 

323. 

11  Block,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  143,  149. 

12  Ibid.,  p.  181. 

13  Ibid.,  pp.  200-201. 

14  Deposition  of  MM.  Witz  Sons  and  Co.,  in  Enquete  sur  I'industrie 
du  coton,  cited  by  Ch.  Rist,  "  Duree  du  travail  dans  I'industrie  fran- 
Qaise  de  1820  a  1870,"  Revue  d'economie  politique,  1897,  vol.  xi,  p.  373. 

15  Bulletin  de  la  societe  industrielle  de  Mulhouse,  1828,  pp.  326-329, 
cited  by  Ch.  Rist,  op.  cit.  p.  373. 

16  G.  Weill,  La  France  sous  la  monarchic  constitutionnelle,  pp.  233- 

234- 

17  Villerme,   Tableau  de  I'etat  physique  et  morale  des  ouvriers  em- 
ployes dans  les  manufactures  de  coton,  de  laine  et  de  foie   (2  vols., 
Paris,  1840),  vol.  ii,  p.  85,  et  seq. 

18  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  industrielle  de  Mulhouse,  vol.  XX,  p.  222, 
Report  by  M.  Achille  Penot  on  the  modification  of  the  law  of  March 
22,  1841.     Cited  in  Rist,  op.  cit.,  p.  376. 

19  Villerme,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii.,  pp.  28-32. 

20  Villeneuve-Bargemont,    LEconomie    politique    chretienne     (Paris, 
1834),  cited  by  Villerme,  op.  cit.,  p.  32. 

21  At  Rouen,  for  example,  men  were  earning  from  i    fr.  25c.  to  2 
fr.  a  day.     See  the  comparative  table  of  expenses  and  wages,  Villerme, 
op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  pp.  150-151. 

22  Villerme,  op.  cit.,  p.  119. 

23  Ibid.,  p.  99. 

24  Ibid.,  p.  408.    The  quotation  is  from  M.  Barbet's  remarks  in  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  June  15,  1839.     It  is  only  fair  to  state  that  some 
of    the   larger   manufacturers,    notably   the    Industrial    Association   of 
Mulhouse,   expressed    the    desire    for    legislative    regulation    of    child- 
labor,  and  the  General  Council  of  Commerce,  composed  of  the  chief 
industrial   magnates    of    France,   wished   the   employment   of   children 
under  eight  years  of  age  to  be  prohibited,  and  the  working  day  to  be 
limited  to  twelve  hours  for  children  under  fifteen  years  of  age.    Cf. 
Villerme,  op.  cit.,  pp.  07-100. 

25  Ibid.,  p.  91. 

26  Ibid.,   p.    116,   note   2.    Villerme   regards   this    as    "a    rare   excep- 
tion." 


402  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Mouvement  physiocratique  en  France  de  1756  a  1770  (2  vols.,  Paris, 
1910)  ;  also  H.  Higgs,  The  Physiocrats  (London,  1897)  ;  G.  Schelle, 
Du  Pont  de  Nemours  et  I'ecole  physiocratique  (Paris,  1888)  ;  Eugene 
Daire,  Physiocrates  (Paris,  1846),  selected  works  and  biographical 
notes ;  Paul  Permezel,  Les  Idces  des  physiocratcs  en  matiere  de  com- 
merce Internationale  (Lyons,  1907)  ;  August  Oncken,  Die  Maxime 
Laisses  faire  et  laisses  passer,  ihr  Ur sprung,  ihr  Werden  (Bern, 
1886)  ;  Gide  and  Rist,  Histoire  des  doctrines  economiques,  pp.  1-59; 
L.  de  Lavergne,  Les  Economises  frangais  du>  dixhuitieme  siecle  (Paris, 
1870)  ;  G.  Schelle,  "  Physiocrates,"  in  Leon  Say  and  J.  Chailley,  Nou- 
veau  Dictionnaire  d' economic  politique  (Paris,  1892),  vol.  ii,  pp.  473-486. 

28  Francois    Quesnay    (1694-1774).     His    first    writing    on    economic 
questions  was  in  the  form  of  articles  (on  "  Fermiers  "  and  "  Grains  ") 
for    the    Encyclopedic    (vol.    vi,    1756,    vol.    vii,    1757).     His    famous 
Tableau  economique  appeared  in  1758.     Cf.  Aug.  Oncken  (ed.),  Oeuvres 
economiques  et  philosophiques  de  F.  Quesnay    (Frankfort  and   Paris, 
1888)  ;  and  G.  Schelle,  Le  docteur  Quesnay   (Paris,  1907)  ;  in  addition 
to  general  works  already  cited  on  the  Physiocrats. 

29  Pierre  Samuel  Du  Pont  de  Nemours   (1739-1817).    A  full  list  of 
his  voluminous  writings  is  given  by  G.  Schelle,  Du  Pont  de  Nemours 
et  I'ecole  physiocratique  (Paris,  1888),  p.  399,  et  seq.;  Schelle's  biog- 
raphy of  the  economist,  it  may  be  remarked,  is  exceptionally  inform- 
ing.    Probably  the  most  interesting  of  Du  Font's  treatises,   from  the 
point  of  view  of   social  politics,  is  that  entitled  De   I'Origine  et  des 
pr ogres  d'une  science  nouvelle    (London  and    Paris,   1767).     His  col- 
lection of  Quesnay's  works,  published  under  the  title  Physiocratie,  ou 
constitution  naturelle  du  gouvernement  le  plus  avantageux  au  genre 
humain    (Leyde,    Paris,    1767-1768),   gave   the    Physiocratie    school    its 
familiar  name,  and  contained   an   introduction  by  Du    Pont  recapitu- 
lating the  philosophy  of  the  new  school. 

30  Victor    Riquetti,    marquis    de    Mirabeau    (1715-1789).     He    wrote 
L'Ami  des  hommes  ou  traite  de  la  population  (Avignon,  1756),  Theorie 
de  I'impdt  (1760),  Philosophic  rurale  (Amsterdam,  1763).     Cf.  Louis  de 
Lomenie,  Les  Mirabeau    (Paris,   1889-91)  ;   L.  Brocard,  Les  Doctrines 
economiques   et   sociales   du   marquis   de   Mirabeau   dans  "  L*Ami  des 
hommes"  (Paris,  1902). 

31  Mercier  de  la  Riviere,  L'Ordre  naturel  et  essentiel  des  societes 
politiques  (Paris,  1767),  is  perhaps  the  best  exposition  of  the  Physio- 
cratie doctrine. 

32  G.  F.  Le  Trosne   (1728-1780).    His  views  are  best  stated  in  De 
I'Ordre  social  (2  vols.,  Paris,  1777). 

33  Nicholas  Baudeau   (1730-1792?).     See  especially  his  Premiere  in- 
troduction d  la  philosophie  economique  (Paris.  1771). 

34  Anne  Robert  Jacques  Turgot,  baron  de  1'Aulne,   (1727-1781),  ex- 
pounded his  economic  theories  in  the  Reflexions  sur  la  formation  et  la 
distribution    des    richesses    (written    in    1766,    published    in    Dupont's 
F.hhemcrides    du    citoyen,    1760-1770).     While    minister    under    Louis 
XVI,  he  endeavored  to  realize  his  theories  by  suppressing  restrictions 
on   internal   free   trade   and   by   abolishing  the   craft   guilds.     Cf.   G. 


APPENDIX  403 

Schelle,  (Euvres  de  Turgot  et  documents  le  concernant  avec  biographic 
et  notes,  (Paris,  1913-1914)  ;  Leon  Say,  Turgot  (second  ed.,  Paris, 
1891)  ;  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  Memoir es  sur  la  vie  et  les  ouvrages  de 
M.  Turgot  (2  vols.,  Phila.,  1782)  ;  R.  P.  Shepherd,  Turgot  and  the  Six 
Edicts  (Columbia  Univ.  Studies,  1903,  vol.  xviii,  No.  2).  While  there 
is  good  reason  to  include  Turgot  among  Quesnay's  followers,  Turgot 
in  developing  his  ideas  manifested  great  independence  of  mind  and 
differed  from  the  orthodox  Physiocrats  on  several  important  points. 

35  Cited  by  Ch.  Gide  and  Ch.  Rist,  Histoire  des  doctrines  economiques, 
p.  6. 

36  Mercier  de  la  Riviere,  Ordre  naturel  (new  edition,  Paris,  1910), 
P-  338. 

37  Du  Pont,  in  his  preface  to  Physiocratie,  p.  Ixxxi. 

88  This  famous  phrase  is  usually  attributed  to  Gournay,  a  contem- 
porary of  Quesnay;  it  was  repeated  by  some  of  Quesnay's  followers, 
though  not  by  the  master  himself,  and  came  to  be  regarded  as  the 
central  maxim  of  physiocratic  doctrine.  Cf,  Oncken,  Die  Maxime 
Lavssez  faire  et  hisses  passer,  ihr  Ur sprung,  ihr  Werden  (Bern,  1886). 

39  Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  De  I'origine  et  des  progres  d'une  science 
nouvelle,  reprinted  in  Daire's  edition  of  the  Physiocrates  (Paris,  1846), 
vol.  ii,  p.  347. 

40  Jean  Baptiste  Say   (1767-1832).    His   Traite  a" economic  politique 
ou  simple  exposition  de  la  maniere  dont  se  forment,  se  distribuent  et 
se  consomment  les  richesses,  appeared  in   1803  and  was  very  widely 
read,  going  through  many  subsequent  editions.     After  the  publication 
of  this  treatise,   Say  established  a  large  textile   factory,  and  divided 
his   time   between   the  practise   and  the   theory  of   economic   science. 
Among  his  other  works,  special  interest  attaches  to  the  Cours  complet 
d' economic   politique   pratique    (six   vols.,    Paris,    1828-1829).    a   work 
"  destined  to  place  before  the  eyes  of  statesmen,  landed  proprietors  and 
capitalists,    scientists,    agriculturalists,    manufacturers,   merchants,    and 
in  general  all  citizens,  the  economy  of  societies  " ;  Catechisme  d 'econ- 
omic politique   (first  ed.,  1817,  7th  ed.,  Malines,  1836)  ;  Lettres  a  M. 
Malthus     (Paris,     1820)  ;     Melanges    et     correspondance    d'economie 
politique    (Paris,    1833),    a    posthumous    collection    edited    by    Charles 
Comte.     See  also  A.  Liesse,  "  Un  prof  esseur  d'economie  politique  sous 
la  restauration  "  (in  Journal  des  economistes,  series  V.  vol.  46,  pp.  3-22, 
161-174). 

41 E.  Dubois  de  1'Estaing,  "  J.  B.  Say,"  in  Nouveau  Dictionnaire 
d'economie  politique  (Paris,  1892),  vol.  ii,  pp.  783-790. 

42  Cf.    Gide  and  Rist,  Histoire  des  doctrines  economiques.  pp.  120- 
138. 

43  J.  B.  Say,  Traite  d'economie  politique  (seventh  edition),  p.  13. 

44  Ibid.,  p.  355,  et  seq. 

45  J.  B.   Say,  Cours  complet  d'economie  politique  pratique,  vol.   iii, 
pp.  243-244.    Liberty,  to  J.  B.  Say,  implied  prohibition  of  associations 
of  workingmen  and  of  employers, —  cf.  ibid.,,  p.  269. 

46  Frederic  Bastiat  (1801-1850)  was  a  bourgeois  by  birth  as  well  as 
by   economic   viewpoint.    His   father   was   a   prosperous   merchant   at 


404 

Bayonne;  Frederic  himself  was  at  first  employed  in  business,  but  later 
became  a  gentleman  farmer,  then  a  politician  and  publicist.  Cobden's 
Anti-Corn-Law  campaign  in  England  inspired  Bastiat  with  the  aspira- 
tion of  becoming  a  French  Cobden.  He  organized  a  Free-Trade  Asso- 
ciation in  France  and  issued  a  series  of  pamphlets  against  protectionism 
and  socialism,  the  two  greatest  menaces  to  economic  liberty.  His  most 
ambitious  economic  treatise,  Les  Harmonies  economiques,  was  begun 
in  1849,  and  published  in  1850.  See  G.  de  Molinari's  biographical  note 
on  Bastiat  in  Journal  des  economistes,  Feb.  1851,  p.  180,  et  seq.,  and 
A.  Courtois,  "  Notice  sur  la  vie  et  les  travaux  de  Frederic  Bastiat," 
Journal  des  economistes,  Feb.,  1888,  p.  272,  et  seq. 

47  Gide  and  Rist,  Histoire  des  doctrines  economiques,  p.  384. 

48  Speech  on   labor  coalitions,   in  the   National  Assembly,   Nov.    17, 
1849,  printed  with  Incompatibilites  parlementaires  (Paris,  1851),  p.  85, 
et  seq.    The   speech   is   extremely  interesting   as   an  evidence   of   his 
attitude  toward  labor. 

49  Bastiat,  Les  Harmonies  economiques  (Brussels,  1850),  ch.  iv,  p.  127. 

50  Bastiat,  op.  cit.,  p.  20. 

51  Ibid.,  p.  2. 

52  Ibid.,  p.  20. 

53  Gide  et  Rist,  op.  cit.,  p.  404. 

54  Bastiat,  it  may  be  remarked,  received  Christian  sacraments  at  his 
death,  but  was  far  from  a  devout  Catholic  in  life,  Journal  des  econo- 
mistes, Feb.,  1851,  p.  195 ;  Feb.,  1888,  p.  293. 

55  Charles  Dunoyer,  (1786-1862),  De  la  liberte  du  travail,  ou  simple 
expose  des  conditions  dans  lesquelles  les  forces  humaines  s'exercent 
avec  le  plus  de  puissance   (Paris,   1845).     This  was  the  enlarged  and 
final  form  of  a  work  which  had  already  appeared  in  1825  and  1830. 

56  Charles  Dunoyer,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  448,  et  seq. 

57  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  435,  et  seq. 

58  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  457. 

59  Louis  Gabriel  Ambroise,  vicomte  de  Bonald  (1754-1840).     Consult 
Mauduit,    Les    Conceptions   politiques   et   sociales   de   Bonald    (thesis, 
Paris,  1913)  ;  Beaumont,  Esprit  de  M.  de  Bonald,  ou  Recueil  metho- 
dique  de  scs  principalcs  pensces  (third  ed.,  Paris,  1870).     Of  Bonald's 
works  (CEuvres  completes,  edited  by  Abbe  Migne,  Paris,  1859,  1864),  the 
following    are    of    chief    interest :      Theorie    du    pouvoir   politique    et 
rcligieux  dans  la  societe  civile  dcmontree  par  le  raisonnement  et  par 
I'histoire    ( 1796)  ;   Essai  analytique  sur  les  lois  naturelles  de  fordfe 
social,  ou  du  Pouvoir,  du  ministre  et  du  sujet  dans  la  societe   (1800)  ; 
Legislation  primitive  consideree  dans  les  derniers  temps  par  les  seules 
lumicres  de  la  raison.  .  .  .   (1802)  ;  Observations  sur  I'ouvrage  de  Mme. 
la  baronne  de  Stael,  ayant  pour  titre,  "  Considerations  sur  les  princi- 
paux  evenements  de  la  Revolution  franqaise"   (1818)  ;  Demonstration 
philosophiquc  du  principe  constitutif  de  la  societe  (1830). 

60  Bonald,  Observations  sur  I'ouvrage  de  Mme.  la  baronne  de  Stael 
ayant  pour  titre  "  Considerations  sur  les  principaux  evenements  de  la 
Revolution  franfaise,"  (1818),  section  vi.  (CEuvres,  vol.  ii,  p.  634). 

61  Ibid.,  sections  ix-x,  An  Bonald's  attitude  toward  political  liberalism. 


APPENDIX  405 

62  Francois  Rene  de  Chateaubriand  (1768-1848),  the  famous  apologist 
for   Christianity   and   author   of   Le   Genie   du   christianisme    (1802). 
He  was  the  recipient  of  distinguished  political  honors  under  the  Res- 
toration government,  but  went  over  to  the  Opposition  during  the  reign 
of    Charles    X.     On    his    life    and    writings,    consult    Jules    Lemaitre, 
Chateaubriand     (Pans,     1912), —  a    primarily    personal    and    literary 
biography. 

63  These  tendencies  of  his  thought  are  perhaps  best  expressed  in  the 
"  Conclusions  "  which  Chateaubriand  appended  to  his  Memoires  d'outre 
tombe   (Paris,  1860),  vol.  vi,  p.  352,  et  seq.    Cf.  also  Chateaubriand, 
(Euvres   (Paris,  1859),  vol.  viii,  p.  18,  et  seq.    Chateaubriand  valued 
liberty,  as  he  defined  it,  but  detested  Liberalism  as  it  was  then  under- 
stood. 

64  Chateaubriand,  Memoires  d'outre-tombe,  vol.  ii,  p.  271. 

65  Revue  europeenne,  1831,  no.  4,  p.  7.    Quoted  by  Calippe,  L' Attitude 
sociale  des  catholiques,  vol.  i,  p.  95. 

66  Chateaubriand,  Memoires  d'outre-tombe,  vol.  vi,  p.  359. 

67  Ibid.,  p.  367,  et  seq. 

68  Philippe  Joseph  Benjamin  Buchez  (1796-1865).     Cf.    Notice  sur  la 
vie  et  les  travaux  de  Buchez,  by  A.  Ott,  which  serves  as  a  biographical 
preface  to  the  posthumous  Traite  de  politique  et  de  science  sociale, 
(Paris,  1866)  by  Buchez,  pp.  xi-cxliii.     For  criticism,  see  Calippe,  op. 
cit.,  pp.   137-176;   fible,  Les  £coles  catholiques  d'economie,  pp.  23-27; 
Gide  and  Rist,  Histoire  des  doctrines  economiques,  pp.  301,  357,  582. 
Also,   Debidour,   Rapports  de   I'eglise   et  de  I'etat  en  France    (Paris, 
1898) ,  p.  484.     fible  asserts  that  Buchez  was  not  a  Catholic  but  "  gravi- 
tated in  the  sphere  of  influence  of  the  Church."     It  is  true  that  in  his 
earlier  life  Buchez  was  not  a  Catholic,  but  he  is  usually  regarded  as 
having  returned  to  the  Catholic  faith.     Cf.  Buchez,  Essai  d'un  traite 
complet  de  philosophic,  du  point  de  vue  du  catholicisme  et  du  progres 
(Paris,  1838-1840). 

69  See  his   scathing  denunciation  of   existing  conditions  and  of  the 
attitude  of  the  economists,  in  Introduction  a  la  science  de  I'histoire,  ou 
science  du  developpement  de  I'humanitc  (Paris,  1833),  pp.  5-42,  espe- 
cially p.  21. 

70  Buchez,  Introduction  a  la  science  de  I'histoire,  p.  347,  et  seq. 

71 A  cooperative  association  of  gilt-workers  was  founded  in  1834 
under  his  inspiration.  Cf.  the  article  by  Buchez  in  the  Journal  des 
Sciences  morales  et  politiques,  Dec.  17,  1831,  and  comment  by  Gide  and 
Rist,  op.  cit.,  p.  301. 

72  Dr.  Ott's  Traite  d'economie  social  (Paris,  1851)  gives  an  interest- 
ing development  of  Buchez's  ideas.    Chevy's  Catholicisme  et  democratic 
(Paris,  1842),  and  Le  dernier  mot  du  socialisme   (Paris,  1848)  present 
a   somewhat   similar   doctrine..  Cf.   fible,    op.   cit.,   p.   28,    et  seq.,  and 
Calippe,  op.  cit.,  pp.  182-183. 

73  Calippe,  op.  cit.,  pp.  185-186. 

74  Ibid.,  p.  184. 

75  Buchez,  Traite  de  la  politique  et  de  science  sociale  (Paris,  1866), 
vol.  ii,  p.  504. 


406  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

76Mgr.  Olympe  Philippe  Gerbet  (1798-1864),  bishop  of  Perpignan. 

77  Gerbet,  Introduction  a  la  philosophic  de  I'histoire   (Paris,   1832  ^ 
pp.  221-223. 

78  Gerbet,  Mandements  ct  instructions  pastorales  (Paris,  1876),  vol. 

i,  P-  323. 

79  Louis  Veuillot  (1813-1883),  consult  Eugene  Veuillot,  Louis  Veuillot 
(Paris,  4  vols.,  1899),  or  the  more  recent  study  by  Eugene  Tavernier, 
Louis   Veuillot    (Paris,   1913)    and  the  article   in   the   Social   Catholic- 
organ,  Association  catholique,  vol.  xv,  p.  545,  et  seq. 

80  Louis  Veuillot,  Cours  d 'economic  politique  a  I'usage  d'un  journal 
conseruateur,    published    in    L'Univers,    Jan.    16,    1842.     Reprinted    in 
Calippe,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  301-304. 

81  Ibid. 

82  Jean    Baptiste    Henri    Dominique    Lacordaire     (1802-1861);.     Cf. 
CEuvres  du  R.  P.  H.  D.  Lacordaire  (Paris,  1873)  ;  R.  P.  Chocarne,  The 
Inner  Life  of  the  Very  Rev.  Pere  Lacordaire,  tr.  from  French  (Dublin, 
1867?)  ;  MacNabb,  Lacordaire  (London,  1890)  ;  Foisset,  Vie  du  R.  P. 
Lacordaire  (Paris,  1870)  ;  Montalembert,  Le  Pere  Lacordaire   (Paris, 
1862)  ;   Fesch,  Lacordaire  journaliste    1830-1848    (Paris,    1897)  ;   comte 
d'Haussonville,  Lacordaire   (4th  ed.,  Paris,   1911)  ;  H.  Villard,  Corre- 
spondance  inedite  du  P.  Lacordaire,  preceded  by  a  biographical  study 
(Paris,  1870);   Segur,  "  Le  Pere  Lacordaire,  le  liberalisme  et  1'infail- 
libilite,"  in  L' Association  catholique,  vol.  i,  p.  289. 

83  In  his  own  words,  "  I  reached  Catholic  belief  through  social  belief," 
Chocarne,  The  Inner  Life  of  the  Very  Reverend  Pere  Lacordaire,  p.  46. 

84  Lacordaire,   Conferences  de  Notre-Dame  de  Paris     (Paris,   1844- 
51),  52e  Conf. 

85  H.  Villard,  Correspondance  inedite  du  P-+  Lacordaire  (Paris,  1870), 
appendix  xvi,  pp.  498-500. 

88  Armand  de  Melun,  (1807-1877).  The  biographical  details  are 
drawn  from  Baunard,  Le  vicomte  Armand  de  Melun  (Paris.  1880)  : 
Baguenault  de  Puchesse,  "  Le  vicomte  de  Melun"  (a  series  of  articles 
in  Le  Correspondant,  Feb.  10,  1882,  p.  43,  et  seq.;  Feb.  25,  p.  655,  et 
seq.;  March  25,  p.  953,  et  seq.)  ;  F.  Dreyfus,  L' Assistance  sous  la 
seconde  Republique  (Paris,  1907)  ;  Calippe,  L' Attitude  sociale  des 
catholiques,  vol.  ii,  pp.  129-152. 

87  Which  became  the  Revue  d' economic  chretienne  in  1860,  and  sub- 
sequently, Le  Contemporain. 

88  In  1847.    The  association  included  150  delegates,  representing  four- 
teen nations.     Cf.  Dreyfus,  op.  cit.,  p.  36. 

89  Cf.  biographical  sketch  in  Calippe,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  23-24. 

90  Goyau,  Autour  du  catholicisme  social,  3e  serie,  pp.  130-131. 

91  Cf.  infra.     His  speech  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  Dec.  22,  1840, 
Moniteur  universel,  1840,  p.  2493,  et  seq.,  is  well  worth  reading  in  con- 
trast with  the  liberal,  anti-interventionist  doctrines  voiced  by  some  of 
the  speakers  in  the  same  debate.     Thery,  in  L'CEuvre  economique  de 
Villeneuve-Bargemont   (Paris,   1911),  p.  68,  ascribes  great  importance 
to  Villeneuve-Bargemont's  defense  of  the  Bill. 

92  Moniteur  universel,  1841,  p.  721. 


APPENDIX  407 

93  Charles  Forbes  Rene  de  Montalembert   (1810-1870).     Cf.  Calippe, 
op.   cit.,  vol.   ii,   pp.    17-32,   and   biography   in   Catholic   Encyclopedia. 
See  Montalembert's  speech  on  the  child-labor  bill  in  the  Chamber  of 
Peers,  March  4,  1840,  Moniteur  universel,  1840,  p.  418  et  seq.,  and  444. 

94  Jean   Paul  Alban  vicomte  de  Villeneuve-Bargemont    (1784-1850). 
Cf.  Thery,  Un  precurseur  du  catholicisme  Social,  le  vicomte  de  Ville- 
neuve-Bargemont  (Lille,   1911);   Calippe,   op.  cit.,  vol.   ii,  pp.   73-82; 
fible,  op.  cit.,  p.  9,  et  seq.;  Gide  and  Rist,  op.  cit.,  p.  233;  Jannet,  "  De 
1'fitat  actuel  de  la  science  sociale,"  in  Correspondant,  Sept.  25,  1878, 
p.  1072.    There  is  a  short  biography  by  an  authoritative  Social  Catholic 
scholar,  Georges  Goyau,  in  the  Catholic  Encyclopedia,  under  the  entry, 
"  Villeneuve-Barcement "    [Sic] . 

95  Thery,  L'CEuvre  economique  de  Villeneuve-Bargemont,  pp.  50-51. 
98  Villeneuve-Bargemont,    Economic    politique    chretienne,    ou    Re- 

cherches  sur  la  nature  et  les  causes  du  pauperisme  en  France  et  en 
Europe,  et  sur  les  moyens  de  le  soulager  et  de  le  prevenir.     (Paris, 

1834)- 

97  Villeneuve-Bargemont,  Histoire  de  I'economie  politique,  ou  Etudes 
historiques,  philosophiques  et  religieuses  sur  I'economie  politique  des 
peuples  anciens  et  inodernes  (Paris,  1841). 

98  Villeneuve-Bargemont,  Le  Livre  des  aMiges  (Paris,  2  vols.,  1841). 

99  Villeneuve-Bargemont,   Histoire   de   I'economie   politique,   etc.,   ii, 

P.  423. 

100  Villeneuve-Bargemont,    Economic    politique    chretienne,    p.    151; 
Histoire  de  I'economie  politique,  vol.  i,  ch.  ix  and  passim* 

101  Speech  in  Chamber  of  Deputies,  Dec.  22,  1840,  Moniteur  universel, 
1840,  p.  2492,  et  seq. 

102  Ibid. 

IDS  Villeneuve-Bargemont,  Economic  politique  chretienne,  p.  468. 
10*  Ibid.,  p.  469. 

105  Ibid.,  p.  475,  et  seq. 

106  Ibid.,  pp.  110-117. 

107  Thery,  op.  cit.,  p.  167,  et  seq. 

108  Speech  in  Chamber  of  Deputies,  Dec.  22,  1840,  Moniteur  universel, 
1840,  pp.  2493-2494. 

109  Thery,  op.  cit.,  p.  248. 

110  Henry  Michel,  L'Idee  de  I'etat  (Paris,  1895),  P-  263. 

111 A  Swiss  Protestant  historian  and  economist,  whose  Nouveaux 
principes  d' economic  politique  (Paris,  1819),  and  Etudes  sur  I'economie 
politique  (Paris,  1837-38)  expounded  a  new  system  of  economy,  op- 
posed to  the  methods,  objects,  and  practical  conclusions  of  what  he 
called  economic  "  orthodoxy,"  i.  e.,  the  classical  school  of  economists. 
In  method,  economy  should  be  less  abstract,  more  historical.  Its 
object  should  not  be  mere  production  of  wealth,  but  men's  welfare 
by  the  general  distribution  of  wealth.  Unrestrained  production,  com- 
petition, and  individualism,  he  endeavored  to  prove,  were  not  con- 
ducive to  the  welfare  of  society.  Hence,  he  concluded,  the  government 
should  regulate  and  restrain  production,  favor  small  holdings  and  small 
entrepreneurs,  grant  to  labor  the  right  of  coalition,  forbid  child-labor 


408  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

and  limit  adult  labor,  force  employers  to  support  their  employees  in 
sickness,  unemployment  and  old  age,  and  place  obstacles  in  the  way  of 
the  marriage  of  paupers.  Sismondi  is  one  of  the  first  modern  econo- 
mists to  admit  extensive  intervention  in  behalf  of  the  workers;  he  is 
also  regarded  as  the  precursor  of  the  historical  school  of  political 
economy.  In  many  respects  his  doctrine  was  close  to  that  of  Ville- 
neuve-Bargemont,  by  whom  he  was  frequently  cited.  In  fact,  Sis- 
mondi was  one  of  the  writers  whom  Villeneuve-Bargemont  wished  to 
include  in  a  new  group  or  school  of  "  Christian  political  economy  "  as 
opposed  to  the  orthodox  or  liberal  school.  Sismondi,  says  Thery,  was 
not  much  read  in  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  whereas  Ville- 
neuve-Bargemont enjoyed  greater  prestige.  In  more  recent  times,  how- 
ever, Villeneuve-Bargemont  has  fallen  into  obscurity,  while  Sismondi's 
reputation  has  enormously  increased.  Cf.  Gide  and  Rist,  Histoire  des 
doctrines  economiques,  pp.  201-233;  Thery,  op.  cit.,  pp.  214-228;  Afta- 
lion,  L'CELuwe  economique  de  Simonde  de  Sismondi  (Paris,  1899)  !  G. 
Isambert,  Les  Idees  socialistes  en  France  de  1815  a  1848  (Paris,  1905), 
ch.  v. 

112  Gaston  Isambert,  Lcs  Idees  socialistes  en  France  de  1815  a  1848 
(Paris,  1905),  P.  254. 

113  For   a   discussion   of   other    friends   or   disciples   of   Villeneuve- 
Bargemont,  notably  Droz,  Ganilh,  Saint-Chamans,  and  Morogues,  the 
reader  is  referred  to  Thery,  op.  cit.,  pp.  209-213. 

114  Count  Charles  de  Coux  (1787-1865).     Cf.  Calippe,  op.  cit.f  vol.  ii, 
PP-  59-72;  £ble,  Les  Scales  catholiques  d'cconomie,  p.  9,  et  seq.;  Thery, 
op.  cit.,  pp.  201-209. 

115  Gide  and  Rist,  Histoire  des<  doctrines  economiques,  p.  556. 

116  Thery,  op.  cit.,  p.  201. 

117  Revue  europeenne,  vol.  i,  no.  9,  pp.  380-382  (1832). 

118  Charles   de   Coux,   "  De   1'etat  moral   de   1'Europe,"   in   L'Avenir, 
April  21,  1831;  cf.  his  Essais  d'cconomie  politiquc   (Paris,  1832),  p.  4. 

119  Charles  de  Coux,  "  Des  Associations  patriotiques,"   in  L'Avenir, 
March  21,  1831. 

120  Thery,  op.  cit.,  p.  201. 

121  Charles  de  Coux,  Essais  d'cconomie  politique,  p.  44. 

122  Ibid.,  passim. 

123  Antoine  Frederic  Ozanam    (1813-1853).     On  his  biography,  con- 
sult C.  A.  Ozanam,  Vie  de  Frederic  Ozanam  (Paris,  1879)  ;  O'Meara, 
Frederic  Ozanam,  his  life  and  works   (2nd  ed.,  London,  1878)  ;  Huit, 
La  Vie  et  les  ceuvres  de  F!.  Ozanam   (Lyons,  1888)  ;  H.  Joly,  Ozanam 
et  ses  continuateurs  (Paris,  1913)  ;  Baudrillart,  Frederic  Ozanam  (Paris, 
1912)  ;  and  an  article  by  V.  de  Clercq  in  L,' Association  catholique,  Feb., 
March,  June,   1002.     Ozanam's  complete   works   were  published   in   n 
volumes,  at  Paris,  1855-65. 

124  Frederic    Ozanam,    Reflexions    sur    la   doctrine    de    Saint-Simon 
(1831).     The  Reflexions  were  little  more  than  a  pamphlet  against  Saint- 
Simon's  attempt  to  substitute  a  new  religion,  the  "  New  Christianity," 
for  the  historic  Church.     In  another  work,  Les  Origines  du  socialisme 
(CEuvres  completes  de  A.  F.  Ozanam,  Paris,   1862-1873,  vol.  vii,  pp. 


APPENDIX  409 

196-245),  Ozanam  recognizes  the  "generosity"  of  socialist  "illusions," 
and  asserts  that,  "  like  all  the  doctrines  which  have  troubled  the  peace 
of  the  world,  socialism  is  a  power  only  because  it  contains  many  truths, 
mixed  with  many  errors."  All  that  which  is  true  in  socialism,  Ozanam 
continued,  was  contained  in  Christianity,  but  without  the  admixture  of 
errors  and  illusions. 

125  Saint-Simon,  Le  nouveau  christianisme    (pub.    1825),  in  (Euvres 
de  Saint-Simon   (Paris,   1841),  p.  138,  et  seq.     Saint-Simon  put  these 
words  in  the  mouth  of  Luther,  as  what  Luther  should  have  said. 

126  He  says  this  very  clearly  in  his  speech  before  the  Conference  of 
Saint- Vincent-de-Paul   at  Florence,   Jan.  30,    1853,   (Euvres   completes, 
vol.  viii,  p.  38,  et  seq. 

127  These  principles  were  stated  in  Ozanam's  notes  for  a  course  of 
lectures  delivered  in  1840.     The  notes  are  published  under  the  caption 
of    "Notes-   d'un    cours   de   droit   commercial"    in    Ozanam's    (Euvres 
completes  (Paris,  1862-1873),  vol.  viii,  especially  pp.  537-545.     Ozanam, 
it  should  be  explained,  studied  and,  for  a  time,  taught  law,  before  he 
devoted  himself  to  literary  history  and  philosophy. 

128  Ozanam,  (Euvres  completes,  vol.  vii,  pp.  263-265, —  an  extract  from 
the  Ere  nouvelle,  of  Oct.  1848. 

129  Notes  d'un  cours  de  droit  commercial,  op.  cit.,  p.  544. 

130  Cf.  Vansteenberghe's  assertion  (Revue  de  Lille,  1901,  n.  s.  vol.  5, 
p.  603)   that  the  new  school  of  Christian  sociology  "  finds  its  basis  in 
the  ancient  doctrine  of   Saint  Thomas,  of  the  Fathers  of  the  fourth 
century,  of  the  Franciscans  of  the  thirteenth,  the  doctrine  which  does 
not  grow  old,  because  it  is  the  truth ;  and  Leo  XIII,  who  is  its  chief, 
in  teaching  it  has  done  no  more  than  rehabilitate  the  august  and  ancient 
Christian  sociology."     Leo  XlII's  historic  encyclical  "  On  the  Condition 
of  the  Working  Classes,"  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  charter  of  the 
Social   Catholic   movement,   laid   great   emphasis   on   the   teachings   of 
Saint  Thomas  Aquinas. 

131  The  Society  of   Saint  Vincent  de   Paul,  founded  by  Ozanam  at 
Paris,    1833,  now   has   branches   in   almost   every   Catholic   parish,   the 
world  over.     It  took  the  name  from  Saint  Vincent  de  Paul  (1580-1660), 
a    French    priest    distinguished   by   his    work    for   the   poorer   classes. 
Consult  Catholic  Encyclopedia  under  entry,  "  Saint  Vincent  de  Paul, 
Society  of." 

132  The  Franciscan  order  (Order  of  Friars  Minor)   was  founded  by 
Saint  Francis  of  Assisi  in  the  thirteenth  century.     It  is  at  present  one 
of  the  largest  orders,  and  together  with  its  auxiliary  "  third  order  "  of 
lay  brothers,  exercises  a  very  powerful  influence  in  the   direction  of 
social  action.     Cf.  Georges  Fonsegrive's  interesting  article  in  the  Quin- 
saine,  1900,  vol.  xxxiv,  pp.  523-542,  on  "  Le  Tiers-Ordre  f  ranciscain : 
son   influence    religieuse  et   sociale."     The  Franciscans  were  the  most 
interesting,  from  this  point  of  view,  but  several  other  orders  of  men- 
dicant friars,  notably  the  Dominicans,  the  Atigustinians,  and  the  Car- 
mellites,  arose  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

133  Joseph  de  Maistre  (1754-1821)  was  a  Savoyard,  of  French  ances- 
try (on  his  father's  side).     His  most  famous  apologetic  work,  Du  Pape 


410  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

(Lyons,  1819),  was  devoted  to  the  defense  of  the  doctrine  of  papal 
infallibility  and  proof  of  the  necessity  of  papal  sovereignty.  In 
L'Eglise  gallicane  dans  ses  rapports  avec  les  souverains  pontifes  (Paris, 
1821),  he  energetically  combated  "Gallicanism,"  i.e.,  the  attempt  in 
France  to  diminish  papal  control  and  to  increase  the  national  autonomy 
of  the  French  Church.  His  writings  exerted  a  very  powerful  influence 
upon  French  Catholic  thought,  especially  upon  the  ideas  of  the  ultra- 
montane group.  Consult  F.  Paulhan,  Joseph  de  Maistre  et  sa  philoso- 
phic.  (Paris,  1893)  ;  E.  Grasset,  Joseph  de  Maistre  (1901)  ;  G.  Cogor- 
dan,  Joseph  de  Maistre  (Paris,  1894)  ;  de  Margerie,  Le  Comte  Joseph 
de  Maistre  (Paris,  1882)  ;  John  Morley,  Critical  Miscellanies  (London, 
1892),  vol.  ii,  pp.  255-338;  L.  Moreau,  Joseph  de  Maistre  (Paris,  1879). 

134  Cf.  CEuvres  completes  de  Joseph  de  Maistre   (Lyons,  1891),  vol. 
i,  pp.  197-202,  8,  et  seq. 

135  Joseph  de  Maistre,  Considerations  sur  la  France,  in  his  (Euvres 
completes,  vol.  i,  p.  55. 

136  Ibid.,  p.  123,  et  seq. 

137  Calippe,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  60. 

138  Cf.  Lamartine,  Histoire  de  la  restauration  (8  vols.,  Paris,  1851- 
1852)  ;  Bottrgain,  L'£glise  de  France  et  I'etat  au  19'  siecle,  1802-1900 
(2  vols.,  Paris,  1901)  ;  Lavisse,  Histoire  generale,  vol.  x,  ch.  iii. 

139  Art.  6  of  the  Charter  of  June  8,   1814.     Cf.  L.  Duguit  and  H. 
Monnier,  Les  Constitutions  et  les  principales  lois  politiques  de  la  France 
depuis  1789  (third  ed.,  Paris,  1915),  p.  185. 

140  Debidour,  Rapports  de  I'eglise  et  de  I'etat  en  France  de  1780  a 
1870  (Paris,  1898),  p.  340.     Law  of  May  8,  1816. 

141  Laws  of  March  17  and  25,  1822.     Debidour,  op.  cit.,  p.  369,  et  seq. 

142  Law  of  April  20,  1825.    Debidour,  op.  cit.,  p.  379,  et  seq. 

143  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  2nd  part,  ch.  i  and  ii,  passim. 

144  Mgr.  Frayssinous  is  perhaps  best  known  as  an  exponent,  in  Les 
Vrais  Principes  de  I'eglise  gallicane   (1818,  third  ed.,  1826,  Paris),  of 
the   theory  of   the   liberties   of   the   Gallican    Church.     He   was   made 
grand  master  of  education  by  Louis  XVIII,  and  insisted  upon  the  teach- 
ing of  "  religious  and  monarchical   sentiments "  in  the   schools.     The 
combination  of  Gallicanism  and  ultramonarchism,  as  shown  in  Frays- 
sinous, is  typical.     Cf.  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  p.  371,  et  seq. 

145  De  Bonald,  mentioned   in  the  preceding  section  as  an  opponent 
of  economic  liberalism,  was  one  of  the  foremost  advocates  of  political 
absolutism  and  of  religious  intolerance.     Cf.  his   Theorie  du  pouvoir 
politique  et  religieux  dans  la  societc  civile,  demontree  par  le  raisonne- 
ment  et  par  I'histoire   (1796)  ;  Essai  analytique  sur  les  lois  naiturelles 
de  I'ordre  social,  ou  du  Pouvoir,  du  ministre  et  du  sujet  dans  la  societc 
(Paris,  1800)  ;  Observations  sur  I'ouvrage  de  Mme.  la  baronne  de  Stael 
avant  pour  titre  "  Considerations  sur  les  principaux  evenements  de  la 
Revolution  francaise  "   (Paris,  1818)  ;  Demonstration  philosophique  du 
principe  constitutif  de  la  societe,  suivie  de  Meditations  politiques  tirees 
de  I'evangile   (Paris,   1830)  :    and  Mauduit,  Les  Conceptions  politiques 
et  sociales  de  Bonald  (thesis,  Paris,  1913). 

148  Cited  by  Calippe,  L' Attitude  sociale,  vol.  i,  p.  92.     For  the  sake  of 


APPENDIX  411 

bringing  out  more  clearly  the  drift  away  from  old-fashioned  monarch- 
ism,  I  have  given  a  too  simple  sketch  of  Chateaubriand's  political 
philosophy.  In  the  face  of  discouragements,  Chateaubriand  remained 
a  monarchist, —  with  misgivings.  Thus,  in  1830,  he  said,  "  perhaps  the 
representative  republic  is  the  future  state  of  the  world,  but  its  time 
has  not  come."  ((Enures  de  Chateaubriand,  vol.  viii,  p.  475.)  In  1836 
he  promised  that  the  remainder  of  his  life  would  belong  to  his  young 
king.  (Memoires  d'outre-tombe,  vol.  vi,  p.  345).  But,  with  all  his 
loyalty,  he  could  not  refrain  from  writing,  in  1841,  that  "  The  old 
European  order  expires  "  .  .  .  "  the  kings  still  hold  the  cards,  but  they 
hold  them  for  the  nations."  ..."  Since  the  banner  of  the  French  kings 
exists  no  more,  all  modern  society  is  deserting  monarchy.  To  hasten 
the  degradation  of  royal  power,  God  has  delivered  the  sceptres  in 
various  countries  into  the  hands  of  sickly  kings  and  little  girls.  .  .  ." 
(Memoires  d'outre-  tombe,  vol.  vi,  p.  356,  et  seq.) 

147  Eugene  Veuillot,  Louis  Veuillot   (Paris,  1899);  Tavernier,  Louis 
Veuillot    (Paris,    1913).    The   quotation   is    from    Calippe,   I/Attitude 
sociale  des  catholiques,  vol.  iii,  pp.  38-43. 

148  This  quotation   is   from  the    Univers,   Veuillot's   organ,   Dec.   26, 
1852,    and    is   cited   by   A.    Leroy-Beaulieu,    Les    Catholiques   liberaux 
(Paris,  1885),  p.  163. 

149  Pierre  Marcel,  Essai  politique  sur  de  Tocqueville  (Paris,  1910),  ch. 
ii-5ii,  especially  p.  64. 

iso  Alexis  de  Tocqueville,  Democracy  in  America  (tr.  by  Henry  Reeve, 
N.  Y.,  1898),  vol.  i,  pp.  384,  393. 

151  Letter  of  Jan.  30,  1829,  cited  in  Leroy-Beaulieu,  Les  Catholiques 
liberaux,  p.  82. 

152  Lacordaire,   however,   seems   to   have   maintained   certain   mental 
reservations    regarding   Lamennais'   philosophy.     Cf.    Chocarne,    Inner 
Life  of  the  Very  Rev.  Pere  Lacordaire  (tr.  from  the  French,  Dublin, 
1867),  p.  93,  et  seq. 

153  Cf.  Blaize,  Essai  biographique  sur  M.  F.  de  Lamennais   (Paris, 
1858)  ;  E.  Spuller,  Lamennais   (Paris,   1892)  ;   Boutard,  Lamennais,  sa 
vie  et  ses  doctrines  (Paris,  1905-8)  ;  Marechal,  Lamennais  et  Lamar- 
tine    (Paris,    1907)  ;   Leroy-Beaulieu,   Les  Catholiques  liberaux,  p.  81, 
et  seq.',  Gibson,  Abbe  de  Lamennais  and  the  Liberal  Catholic  Move- 
ment in  France   (London,   1896)  ;   A.  Roussel,  Lamennais  cTapres  des 
documents  inedits  (3d.  ed.,  Rennes,  1893)  ;  A.  Feugere,  Lamennais  avant 
I'essai  sur  {'indifference  (Paris,  1906). 

154  As  minister  of  the  interior,  Aug.  n,  1830;  as  minister  of  public 
instruction,  Oct.  II,  1832. 

155  Debidour,  Histoire  des  rapports  de  I'eglise  et  de  I'etat  en  France 
de  1789  a  1870   (Paris,   1898),  part  ii,  ch.   iii;   Bourgain,  L'£glise  de 
France  et  I'etat  au  XIX*  siecle;  G.  Weill,  La  France  sous  la  monarchic 
constitutionnelle  (Paris,  1912)  ;  J.  MacCaffrey,  History  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  (St.  Louis,  1910),  vol.  i,  p,  59,  et  seq.; 
consult  especially  the  memorandum  presented  to  the  pope  by  the  editors 
of  L'Avenir,  reprinted  in  Fesch,  Lacordaire  journaliste,  p.  308,  et  seq., 
for  a  contemporary  description  of  the  government's  policy. 


412  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

156  The  editors  were  Lamennais,  Gerbet,  Rohrbacher,  Lacordaire,  de 
Coux,  Bartels,  Montalembert,  Daguerre,  Ault-Dumenil.     Cf.  Fesch,  op. 
dt.,  p.  334- 

157  G.  Weill,  La  France  sous  la  monarchic  constitutionnelle,  p.  147. 

158  Leroy-Beaulieu :   Lcs  Catholiques  liberaux,  p.   96.     It  should  not 
be  implied,  however,  that  the  editors  were  unanimously  convinced  that 
a   democratic    republic    was    the    best   possible    form    of    government. 
Lamennais,  for  one,  would  have  preferred  a  republic  to  the  July  Mon- 
archy.   At  the  time  of  the  July  Revolution  he  wrote  to  a  friend, — 
"  They  are  going  to   place   the  crown   on  the  head   of   the   duke  of 
Orleans.     The   majority  would   prefer   a   republic,   a   republic    frankly 
declared,  and  I  am  among  that  number."     The  Orleanist  monarchy,  he 
believed,  was   only  a  compromise,  the  republican   idea  was   bound   to 
triumph    and    non-republican    institutions    would    inevitably    be    over- 
turned, perhaps  by  dangerous  violence.     Cf.  Spuller,  Lamennais,  p.  172. 
Lacordaire,    on   the   other   hand,    was    a   constitutional    monarchist   by 
predilection,  and  became  a  hesitant  republican  by  necessity.     In  a  let- 
ter to  Montalembert,  Oct.  9,  1839,  he  said,  "  We  will  not  put  our  hope 
in  the  reestablishment  of  the  ancient  monarchy;  no  more  must  we  put 
hope  in  the  reestablishment  of  the  old  aristocracy.     We  can  expect  noth- 
ing except  from  new  elements  hidden  in  the  palpitating  bosom  of  modern 
peoples.  .  .  .  Democracy,  born  of  the  old  society  and  thereby  corrupted 
in  its  cradle,  has  already  committed  great  faults  and  great  crimes,  but 
this  new  French  people  has  been  a  product,  not  a  cause ;   it  has  not 
yet  possessed  power  long  enough  to  be  condemned  forever.     Moreover, 
it  is  the  only  strong  element  today.     It  is  a  vigorous  child  of  an  aged 
race ;  instead  of  wishing  to  curb  it  under  the  corrupted  ferule  of  its 
fathers,   Religion   must   elevate   and   enlighten   it."     Cf.   Fesch,  Lacor- 
daire journalistc,  pp.  60-61.     L'Avenir  did  not  openly  condemn  mon- 
archy in  principle,  cf.  Spuller,  Lamennais,  p.  178. 

159  Cf.  Articles  de  I'Avenir  (7  vols.,  Louvain,  1830-1832). 

160  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  p.  422 ;  Spuller,  Lamennais,  pp.  180-181. 

161  Spuller,  op.  cit.,  pp.  183-4. 

162  Cf.  Lamennais,  Affaires  de  Rome    (Paris,   1836)    for  Lamennais' 
own  story  of  the  episode ;  cf.  also  Leroy-Beaulieu,  Catholiques  liberaux, 
p.  101,  ct  seq.;  Spuller,  op.  cit.,  ch.  vi.     The  memorandum  presented  to 
the  pope  by  the  editors  of  L'Avenir  is  reprinted  in  Lamennais,  op.  cit., 

PP.  37-89. 

163  Bullarium  Romanum  xix,  pp.  126-132.     Cf.  F.  Neilsen,  History  of 
the  Papacy  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  (translation,  London,  1006),  vol. 
ii,  pp.  67  et  seq.;  the  text  of  the  encyclical  is  given  in  French  and  in 
Latin  in  Lamennais,  Affaires  de  Rome,  p.  318,  et  seq. 

164  Cardinal  Pacca  wrote  Lamennais  a  personal  letter  informing  him 
that  the  pope  had  been  pained  to  see  him  discuss  questions  with  which 
only  the  highest  ecclesiastical  authorities  were  capable  of  dealing,  and 
that  L'Avenir' s  advocacy  of  liberty  of  the  press  as  positively  desirable 
had  astonished  the  Holy  See.     Cf.  Spuller,  op.  cit.,  209;   Neilsen,  op. 
cit.,  vol.  ii,  p.  70;  Lamennais,  Affaires  de  Rome,  pp.  32,  131,  et  seq. 

165  Lamennais,  Affaires  de  Rome,  p.  137. 


APPENDIX  413 

166  Cf.  Lamennais,  Paroles  d'un  croyant  (Paris,  1834),  passim;  idem, 
Affaires  de  Rome,  p.  270,  et  seq.;  Spuller,  Lamennais,  passim. 

167  Montalembert,    whose    mother    was    Irish,    knew    and    admired 
O'Connell,  the  famous  Irish  leader,  and  possibly  had  O'Connell's  ex- 
ample in  mind.     Cf.  Weill,  La  France  sous  la  monarchic  constitution- 
nelle,  p.  155;  and,  by  the  same  author,  Histoire  du  catholicisme  liberal 
en  France   (Paris,  1909),  p.  69,  et  seq.;  J.  T.  Foisset,  Le  Comte  de 
Montalembert  (Paris,  1877). 

168  Leroy-Beaulieu,  Les  Catholiques  liberaux,  pp.  in,  118,  121-124. 

169  Ibid.,  p.  142,  et  seq. 

ITO  Weill,  Histoire  du  catholicisme  liberal  en  France,  pp.  98-99. 

171  Ibid.,  p.  96;    For  further  details  regarding  Maret,  see  G.  Bazin, 
Vie  de  Mgr.  Maret  (2  vols.,  Paris,  1891). 

172  Fesch,  Lacordaire  journalist e,  p.  62,  et  seq. 

173  Charles  de  Coux,  although  barely  mentioned  in  this  sketch,  was 
an  extremely  interesting  figure.     He  had  been  the  acknowledged  econo- 
mist of  L'Avenir.    His  theory  that  universal  suffrage  would  help  to 
ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  workingman   is   an  indication  of  his 
attitude  toward  democracy.     Cf.  Calippe,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  59-72,  and 
also  supra,  pp.  24-25. 

17*Ibid.,  p.  64,  et  seq.,  87.     Other  signatories  of  the  prospectus  were 
Charles  Sainte-Foy,  Lorain,  de  Labaume,  J.  P.  Tessier,  and  Gouraud. 

175  The  success  of  the  journal  was  immediate  and  its  influence  con- 
siderable.    The   circulation   reached   20,000   in   June,    1848.     After   the 
June  Days,  Lacordaire's  lack  of  faith  in  the  republic  became  so  dis- 
cordant with  the  democratic  convictions  of  the  other  editors,  of  Maret 
particularly,  that  he  resigned  the  office  of  editor-in-chief  in  Maret's 
favor,  September  2,  1848.     Lacordaire's  own  explanation  of  his  retire- 
ment, as  given  in  Fesch,  Lacordaire  journaliste,  p.  91,  et  seq.,  shows 
clearly  that  while  he  accepted  the  republic  he  was  not  a  convinced  re- 
publican.    As  he  himself  said,  he  was  not  a  republican  of  yesterday, 
but   a  republican   of  tomorrow;   hope   rather  than   principle   was   the 
basis  of  his  republicanism,  and  hope  was  destroyed  by  the  tragic  events 
of  June.    Cf.  Chocarne,  Inner  Life  of  .  .  .  Lacordaire,  ch.  xvii ;  Fesch, 
Lacordaire  journaliste,  p.  59,  et  seq. 

176  Le  Correspondant,  vol.  xxi,  p.  412.    In  a  letter  to  M.  Foisset,  Feb. 
22,  1848,  Ozanam  explained  the  phrase.     "  When  I  say  '  let  us  go  over 
to  the  side  of  the  barbarians,'  I  do  not  mean  go  over  to  the  side  of  the 
radicals.  .  .  ."     What  he  did  mean,  was  to  go  over,  "  from  the  camp  of 
the  kings,  of  the  statesmen  of  1815,  to  the  people."     "And  in  saying 
'  let  us  go  over  to  the  barbarians,' "  he  continued,  "  I  demand  .  .  .  that 
we  concern  ourselves  with  the  people,  who  have  too  many  needs  and 
not  enough  rights,  who  rightly  demand  a  more  complete  participation 
in  public  affairs  as  well  as  guarantees  of  work  and  against  poverty, — 
the  people,  who  have  false  leaders,  but  only  because  they  cannot  find 
good  leaders.  .  .  ."    Lettres  de  Frederic  Ozanam  (Paris,  1873),  vol.  ii, 
p.  217,  et  seq. 

177  Letter  to  M.  Prosper  Dugas,  March  ii,  1849,  in  Lettres  de  Fred- 
eric Osanam,  vol.  ii,  251. 


4H  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

178  MacCaffrey,  op.  cit.,  p.  235;  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  pp.  485-487.    In 
strict  accuracy,  it  should  be  said  that  Lacordaire  was  acclaimed  by  the 
crowds  outside,  rather  than  by  the  Assembly  itself.    Cf.  Fesch,  Lacor- 
daire journaliste,  p.  76  note,  and  Chocarne,  op,  cit.,  p.  439. 

179  Lamartine's  part  in  the  great  events  of  1848  is  described  in  much 
detail  in  his  own  Histoire  de  la  Revolution  de  1848   (Leipsig,  1849). 
Cf.   also,   P.   Quentin-Bauchart,   Lamartine,   homme  politique    (thesis, 
Paris,  1903)  ;  H.  Remsen  Whitehouse,  The  Life  of  Lamartine  (2  vols., 
Boston,  and  New  York,  1918)  ;  fimile  Ollivier,  Lamartine  (Paris,  1874)  ; 
L.  de  Ronchaud,  La  Politique  de  Lamartine  (2  vols.,  1878)  ;  L.  Barthou, 
Lamartine,   orateur    (Paris,    1916)  ;    there   are   numerous    other   biog- 
raphies.   As    regards    social    questions,    Lamartine    was    opposed    to 
laisses-faire,  on  one  hand,  and  to  socialism,  on  the  other.    He  stood  for 
the   workingman's   "right  to  work,  or  to  state  assistance  in  case  of 
demonstrated    necessity."     Cf.   his   Discours   sur   le    droit   au    travail 
(Paris,  1848)  ;  H.  Michel,  L'Idee  de  I'etat  (Paris,  1895),  p.  330,  et  seq.; 
and  Eva  Sachs,  Les  Idees  sociales  de  Lamartine  (thesis,  Paris,  1915). 

180  Dreyfus,  L' Assistance  sous  la  seconde  republique   (Paris,  1907), 
pp.  211-212. 

181  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  pp.  483-4,  gives  this  and  additional  evidence  of 
the  generality  of   Catholic  approval.     Cf.  Henri  Cabane,  Histoire  du 
clerge  de  France  pendant  la  Revolution  de  1848  (Paris,  1908). 

182  Cf.  Chocarne,  op.  cit.,  pp.  436-437.    The  pope  himself  wrote  to 
Montalembert,  expressing  deep  gratification  that  during  the  Revolution 
no  injury  had  been  offered  to  the  Church. 

183  Fesch,  op.  cit.,  pp.  64-67. 

184  Louis  Blanc,  Histoire  de  la  Revolution  de  1848   (2  vols.,  Paris, 
1870),  ch.  xi,  xix-xxii;  J.  A.  R.  Marriott,  The  French  Revolution  of 
1848  in  its  Economic  Aspect  (Oxford,  1913),  vol.  i,  p.  Ixix,  et  seq.; 
fimile  Thomas,  Histoire  des  ateliers  nationaux   (Paris,  1848, —  repub- 
lished  as  vol.  ii  of  Marriott,  op.  cit.)  ;  Pierre  de  La  Gorce,  Histoire  de 
la  seconde  republique  franfaise    (7th  ed.,  Paris,   1914),  vol.  i,  pp.  277- 
328. 

185  La  Gorce,  Histoire  de  la  seconde  republique,  vol.  i,  pp.  377~38i, 
389;   and  Moniteur  universel,   1848,  p.   1503.     This  event  occurred  on 
June  25,  after  the  fighting  had  begun.     Ozanam,  one  of  the  precursors 
of   Social   Catholicism   mentioned   in   ch.   i,   wished   to   accompany  the 
archbishop,  but  the  latter  refused  to  grant  the  request.     Mgr.   Affre 
induced  the  workingmen  to  discuss  a  truce,  and  the  drums  were  beat 
to  command  silence,  but  the  drum-call  was  misinterpreted  and  fighting 
was  resumed.     The  unsuccessful  mediator,  mortally  wounded,  fell  into 
the  arms  of  a  workingman  and  was  taken  to  a  nearby  rectory.     Louis 
Blanc   (Histoire  de  la  revolution  de  1848  vol.  ii,  p.  179)    cites  an  af- 
fidavit by  one  of  Mgr.  Affre's  companions  stating  that,  so  far  as  could 
be  judged  in  the  confusion,  the  archbishop  was  not  shot  by  the  de- 
fenders of  the  barricades. 

186  The  losses  on  both  sides  were  estimated  at  16,000  by  Lord  Nor- 
manby,  then  British  ambassador  to  France    (Marriott,  dp.  cit.,  vol.  i, 
p.  xcii).    The  prefect  of  police,  however,  placed  the  figure  much  lower, 


APPENDIX  415 

probably  too  low;  there  had  been  1,035  killed  and  2,000  wounded,  he 
said.  La  Gorce,  a  conservative  historian,  arrives  at  3,000  as  the  ap- 
proximate figure.  (La  Gorce,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  393).  Gustave  Geof- 
froy,  writing  in  La  Revolution  de  1848,  Bulletin  de  la  societe  d'histoire 
de  la  revolution  de  1848  (1904-1905,  pp.  22-29),  gives  a  "moderate" 
estimate  of  12,000  dead  and  25,000  arrests. 

187  A  "  state  of  siege  "  was  maintained  until  the  end  of  October,  and 
Ger>.  Cavaignac  was  virtually  dictator.     Cf.  Lavisse  et  Rambaud,  His- 
toire  generate,  vol.  xi,  p.  20,  et  seq.;  La.  Gorce,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  405, 
et  seq.;  Louis  Blanc,  Histoire  de  la  revolution  de  1848,  vol.  i,  p.  184, 
et  seq.;  Marriott,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  xcii,  et  seq,  Louis  Blanc,  who  is,  of 
course,  a  prejudiced  witness,  tells  us  that  after  the  June  Days,  "  the 
counter-revolution  audaciously  unfurled  its  flag " ;  Cavaignac's  power, 
he  says,  was  merely  nominal,  for  "  the  true  masters  of  the  situation 
were  MM.  Thiers,  de  Falloux,  de  Montalembert,  Odilon  Barrot,  Ber- 
ryer:     royalists."     Of     the     Republic,     "only     the     word     remained." 
Though  this  may  be  exaggeration,  it  gives  some  idea  of  the  bitter  pas- 
sions excited  by  the  June  Days, —  passions  fatal  to  democratic  concord. 
Cf.  also   E.   Dagnan,   "  La    Reaction  conservatrice "   in  La  Revolution 
de    1848,    Bulletin    de    la    societe    d'histoire    de    la    revolution    de 
1848,  1909-10,  pp.  213-223,  290-313. 

188  Lavisse  et   Rambaud,  Histoire  generale,  vol.   xi,  pp.   22-23 ;   La 
Gorce,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  458,  et  seq.;  MacCaffrey,  History  of  the  Catholic 
Church  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  vol.  i,  p.  237 ;  Debidour,  Rapports 
de  I'eglise  et  de  I'etat  en  France,  p.  494;  A.  Leroy-Beaulieu,  Les  cath- 
oliques  liberaux  (Paris,  1885),  p.  165;  Georges  Renard,  La  Republique 
de  1848   (Hist,  socialiste,  vol,  ix,   Paris,   1907),   p.   124,  et  seq.     Mon- 
talembert supported  Louis  Napoleon,  and  gave  evidence  of  abandoning 
his  earlier  liberal  views.     In  October,  1849,  he  wrote,  "  the  kings  have 
mounted  their  thrones  again ;   liberty  has  not  regained  hers,  she  has 
not  even  regained  the  throne  which  she  had  in  our  hearts." 

189  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  part  ii,  ch.  v. ;  G.  Weill,  Histoire  du  catholic- 
isme  liberal  en  France,  1828-1908,  p.  109,  et  seq. 

190  Cf.  two  articles  by  Am.  Matagrin,  entitled  "  Le  Comite  des  cultes 
en  1848,"  in  La  Revolution  de  1848,  Bulletin  de  la  societe  d'histoire  de 
la  revolution  de  1848,  1005-1906,  pp.  180-196,  245-256;  the  author  holds 
that  the  development  of  anticlericalism  among  the  French  republicans 
was  in  large  measure  due  to  clerical  aggression. 

191  W.  R.  Thayer,  Dawn  of  Italian  Independence   (Boston  and  New 
York,  1893),  vol.  ii,  pp.  263,  288-293;  L.  C.  Farini,  Lo  Stato  Romano 
dall'anno  1815  al  1850  (Florence,  1853),  vol.  iii,  pp.  1-208;  H.  Reuchlin, 
Geschichte  Italiens  (Leipzig,  1859-1873),  vol.  iii,  pp.  18-52. 

192  La    Gorce,   Histoire   de   la   seconde   republique,   vol.    ii,    pp.    151- 
248;  T.  Delord.  Histoire  du  second  empire   (5th  ed.,  Paris,  1869),  vol. 
i,  pp.   141-150;   Olliver,   L' Empire  liberal   (Paris,    1895-1912),  vol.   ii, 
p.  220;  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  p.  496,  et  seq.;  E.  Bourgeois  and  E.  Cler- 
mont,  Rome  et  Napoleon  III  (Paris,  1907)  ;  Farini,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  p. 
360,  et  seq.,  vol.  iv,  libra  sesto. 

193  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  pp.  504-512,  701-718  (text  of  law).     Cf.  Leroy- 


416  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Beaulieu,  Les  Catholiques  liberaux,  ch.  ix,  and  G.  Weill,  Histoire  du 
catholicisme  liberal  en  France,  p.  102,  ei  seq.-  regarding  the  effect  of 
this  law  in  disrupting  the  Catholic  party. 

194  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  p.  518. 

195  Ibid.,  p.  519.    Veuillot  gave  chief  credit  for  the  Rome  expedi- 
tion to  Louis  Napoleon  himself, —  cf.  Leroy-Beaulieu,   op.  cit.  p.   155 
note. 

196  Leroy-Beaulieu,  op.  cit.,  ch.  ix;  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  p.  524,  et.  seq.; 
La  Gorce,  Histoire  du  second  empire  (Paris,  1899-1905),  vol.  i,  livre  ii; 
Weill,  op.  cit.,  p.  in,  et  seq.;  Delord,  Histoire  du  second  empire,  vol. 
ii,  ch.  v-vi. 

197  Foisset,  Vie  du  R.  P.  Lacordaire. 

198  Cf.  Montalembert,  Des  Intercts  catholiques  au  XIX'  siecle  (Paris, 
1852)  ;  Lacanuet,  Montalembert,  passim;  Weill,  op.  cit.,  p.  161,  et  seq.; 
Debidour  op.  cit.,  pp.  522,  532,  580,  582,  et  seq.;  and  an  article  by  J. 
F.  Jeanjean  on  "  Montalembert,  les  catholiques  et  1'Empire  en  1859," 
in  La  Revolution  de  1848,  Bulletin  de  la  societe  histoire  de  la  revolu- 
tion de  1848,  1913-1914,  p.  23,  et  seq. 

199  Cf.  Leroy-Beaulieu,  op.  cit.,  pp.  168,  196,  et  seq. 

200  Original  text  in  Latin  in  Ada  ,et  decreta  concilii  Vaticani  (Frei- 
burg, 1871)  ;  in  French  translation,  Debidour.  op.  cit.,  p.  719,  et  seq.;  in 
English  and  Latin,  Philip  Schaff,  The  Creeds  of  Christendom   (N.  Y,. 
1878),  vol.  ii,  pp.  213-233.     On  the  effect  of  the  Syllabus,  consult  Leroy- 
Beaulieu,  op.  cit.,  ch.  xi;  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  part  ii,  ch.  viii;  Weill,  op. 
cit.,  p.  169,  et  seq.;  Ollivier,  L' Empire  liberal,  vol.  vii,  p.  201,  et  seq. 

201  La  Gorce,  Histoire  du  second  empire,  vol.  ii,  p.  97,  et  seq.,  vol. 
iv,  p.  190;  T.  Delord,  Histoire  du  second  empire,  vol.  iii,  p.  398. 

202  On  his  earlier  career,  cf.  supra,  ch.  i,  pp.  18-19. 

203  Dreyfus,  L' Assistance  sous  la  seconde  Republique,  pp.  96-97. 

204  From  a  speech  before  the  Society  of  Charitable  Economy,  March 
6,   1848, —  cf.  Annales  de  la  charite,  quatrieme  annee,  p.  65.     It  is  in- 
teresting to  compare  this  with  a  letter  of  June,  1850,  in  which  Melun 
explained  that  what  he  hoped  for  in  the  republic  was  an  opportunity 
to   establish   social   legislation   inspired   by   Christian    charity,    so   that 
by  merely  opening  the  code  of  laws  "  one  could  recognize  that  Chris- 
tianity was  at  the  basis  of  our  social  legislation,  and  that  the  Gospel 
was  our  legislative  alphabet.     That  was  what  attracted  me,  I  admit,  in 
the  Republic,  which   seemed  to   discard   all   established   principles,   all 
official  maxims,  and  promised  to  realize  in  this  world,  so  far  as  pos- 
sible, the  divine  commands.     The  monarchy,  as  it  was   formerly  un- 
derstood, had  the  advantages  and  the  disadvantages  of  the  theory  upon 
which   it  rested :   it  placed  itself  between  God  and  us,   posing  as  in- 
termediary  between   heaven    and    earth."    This    doctrine    had   the   ad- 
vantage of  strengthening  obedience  to  authority,  but  too  often  it  forced 
the  acceptance  of  evil.     But  the  fiction  of  divine  right  monarchy  had 
crumbled,  and  the  people  had  assumed  the  right  to  choose  the  form  of 
government  considered  most  serviceable  to  their  own  interests.     They 
had  established  a  republic,  but  were  already  growing  weary  of  it,  and 
there  were  signs  of  reversion  to  monarchy,  not  monarchy  by  divine 


APPENDIX  417 

right,  Melun  sarcastically  observed,  but  monarchy  for  the  protection 
of  property. 

205  Correspondant,  Feb.  10,  1882,  p.  446. 

200  Dreyfus,  op.  cit.,  p.  98,  el  seq. 

207  Correspondant,  Feb.  10,  1882,  p.  449. 

208  Ibid.,  Feb.  25,  1882,  p.  656. 

209  Ibid. 

210  Ibid.,  p.  668. 

211  Ibid.,  p.  657;  Dreyfus,  op.  cit.,  p.  44. 

212  Article  XIII   of  the  constitution  of   1848  is  as   follows :     "  The 
constitution  guarantees  to  the  citizens  liberty  of  work  and  of  industry. 
Society    favors    and    encourages    the    development    of    labor    by    free 
primary   instruction,   vocational   training,   equality   in   the   relationship 
between    employer   and   workingman,   institutions    for   providence   and 
credit,  agricultural  institutions,  voluntary   association,   and  the  estab- 
lishment by  the  state,  by  the  departments  and  by  the  communes,  of 
public  works  designed  to  employ  idle  arms ;  it  furnishes  aid  to  aban- 
doned infants,  to  the  infirm  and  aged  who  are  destitute  of  resources, 
and  whose  families  cannot  succor  them." — 'Duguit  and  Monnier  (ed.), 
Les  constitutions  de  la  France,  p.  235. 

213  Melun's  report,  in  Moniteur  universel,  1840,  p.  2197.    Cf.  also  p. 
2140. 

214  Moniteur  universel,  1849,  pp.  2304-2308. 

215  Dreyfus,  op.  cit.,  p.   131. 

216  Ibid.,  pp.  121-127. 

217  Correspondant,  Feb.  25,  1882,  pp.  661-662. 

218  De    ['Intervention    de    la   Societe   pour    prevenir    et   soulager    la 
miser e    (pamphlet,   Paris,    1849).     This  pamphlet  is  a  reprint  of  two 
articles  which  appeared  in  the  Annales  de  la  charite  for  1849,  pp.  337, 
et  seq.,  401,  et  seq. 

219  In   1851  he  reported  a  bill  for  such  organization.     The  bill  pro- 
vided for  the  creation  of  a  special  council  or  board  under  the  chairman- 
ship of  the  minister  of  the  interior  to  supervise  the  execution  of  the 
laws  on  public  assistance  of  the  poor.     This  council  was  to  be  com- 
posed of  twenty  members,   including   four   delegates   of  the   National 
Assembly,  two  of  the  Council  of  State,  two  of  the  court  of  appeal,  one 
of  the  audit  department,  one  of  the  Academy  of  Moral  and  Political 
Sciences,  and  ten  members  appointed  by  the  president  of  the  Republic. 
In  addition,  each  departement  was  to  have  a  committee  on  assistance 
of  the  poor ;  the  departmental  committee  in  each  case  would  comprise 
the  prefect,  the  bishop,  a  Protestant  minister  in  departements  where  a 
Protestant  church  was  recognized,  a  delegate  of  the  court  of  appeals 
or  of  the  court  of  first  instance,  and  from  four  to  six  members  chosen 
by  the  conseil  general  of  the  departement.    To  these  committees  would 
be  intrusted  the  task  of  supervising  the  various  public  institutions  for 
poor  relief,  and  the  authority  to  grant  recognition  [implying  the  right 
to    own   property   and    receive   bequests]    to   deserving   institutions   of 
private  charity.     The  bill  was  never  adopted.     Cf.  Moniteur  universel, 
1851,  pp. 


418  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

220  Melun,  De  I' Intervention  de  la  Societe  pour  prevenir  et  soulager 
la  misere.    In  summarizing  Melun's  ideas  I  have  availed  myself  freely 
of   the  excellent  exposition  and   discussion  to   be   found  in  Dreyfus, 
op.  cit.,  p.  iii,  et  seq. 

221  Loi  relative  a  I'assainissement  des  logements  insalubres,  passed 
by  the   National  Assembly  on  April   13,    1850,  and   duly  promulgated, 
cf.  Moniteur  universel,  April   23,    1850,   p.    1317.    The   law   gave   the 
municipal  council  in  each  commune  authority  to  appoint  a  committee 
for  the  inspection  of  housing  conditions,  and  to  require  improvements 
where  necessary.     Buildings   which  could   not  be   rendered   healthful, 
might  be  condemned  by  the  prefectural  council.    This  bill  had  been 
presented  by  Melun. 

222  Loi  qui  cree,  sous  la  garantie  de  I'Etat,  une  caisse  de  retraces  ou 
rentes  viageres  pour  la  vieillesse,  passed  by  the  National  Assembly  on 
June   12,   1850,  and  duly  promulgated, —  cf.  Moniteur  universel,  June 
25,  1850,  p.  2163.    This  was  a  scheme  for  voluntary  insurance  against 
old  age;  neither  the  state  nor  the  employer  was  obliged  to  contribute. 
The  amount  of  the  annuity  or  pension  was  based  on  the  amount  of 
the  premiums   paid   by   the   workingman,   plus  five   per   cent    interest, 
taking  into  account  his  probability  of  life  according  to  actuarial  tables; 
in  any  case,  the  annuity  could  not  exceed  600  francs. 

223  Loi  sur  les  societes  de  secours  mutuels,  passed  by  the  National 
Assembly  on  July  15,  1850,  and  duly  promulgated, —  cf.  Moniteur  uni- 
versel, July  20,  1850,  p.  2479.    Mutual  aid  societies  having  not  fewer 
than  100  and  not  more  than  2,000  members  might  under  certain  con- 
ditions be  recognized  as  of  public  utility  and  be  authorized  to  receive 
gifts  and  legacies  not  exceeding  1000  francs.     Such  societies  were  for- 
bidden to  promise  old  age  pensions  to  their  members,  but  they  were 
allowed  to  grant  temporary  aid  in  case  of  sickness,   accident,  or  in- 
firmity, and  to  defray  funeral  expenses.     Dues  were  to  be  fixed  in  ac- 
cordance with  actuarial  tables  prepared  or  approved  by  the  govern- 
ment.   The  societies  were  to  be  subject  to  municipal  surveillance. 

224  Loi  sur  I' education  et  le  patronage  des  jeunes  detenus,  passed  by 
the  National  Assembly  on  Aug.   5,   1850  and  duly  promulgated, —  cf. 
Moniteur  universel,  Aug.  13,  1850,  p.  2813.    Juvenile  offenders  were  to 
receive  moral,  religious,  and  vocational  training,  and  were  to  be  kept 
apart  from  adult  criminals.    Under  certain  conditions  they  might  be 
employed  in  penitentiaries. 

225  I.e.,  the  revolving  closets   (tours),  which  were  placed  at  the  en- 
trance to  hospices,  and  in  which  foundlings  might  be  deposited  with- 
out observation.    The  foundlings  left  there  were  then   cared   for  by 
charitable    institutions.     Cf.    Melun's    report,   Moniteur   universel,   pp. 
974,   1080. 

226  Loi  sur  les  hospices  et  hopitaux,   passed   by  the   National   As- 
sembly on  Aug.  7,   1851, —  cf.  Moniteur  universel,  Aug.    13,    1851,   p. 
2363. 

227  Loi  relative  aux  contrats  d'apprentissage,  passed  by  the  National 
Assembly  on   Feb.   22,    1851,   and   duly  promulgated, —    cf.   Moniteur 


APPENDIX  419 

universel,  March  4,  1851,  p.  641.  This  was  an  important  measure.  By 
article  8,  "  the  master  must  conduct  himself  towards  the  apprentice 
as  a  good  father."  He  must  not  employ  the  apprentice  on  work  un- 
related to  the  trade,  or  work  injurious  to  health,  or  work  in  excess 
of  the  boy's  strength  (art.  8).  Apprentices  less  than  fourteen  years 
old  might  not  work  over  ten  hours  a  day;  apprentices  under  sixteen 
might  not  work  at  night;  no  work  was  to  be  done  on  Sundays  and 
legal  holidays  (art.  9).  If  the  apprentice  had  not  yet  mastered  the 
"  three  R's  "  he  must  be  allowed  two  hours  a  day  for  instruction  (art. 
10).  The  master  was  legally  obliged  to  give  his  apprentices  full  train- 
ing in  the  trade  (art.  12). 

228  The  reference  is  probably  to  a  bill  prepared  by  the  Conseil  general 
de  1'agriculture,  des  manufactures  et  du  commerce,  cf.  Moniteur  uni- 
versel  1850,  pp.  1393,  et  seq.,  1439,  et  seq.,  1454  et  seq. 

229  From  one  of  the  series  of  biographical  articles  by  G.  Baguenault 
de  Puchesse  in  the  Correspondant,  Feb.  25,  1882,  p.  664.    The  list  is 
not  complete.    Among  other  laws  passed  by  the  National  Assembly, — 
and  in  some  of  these  laws  Melun  took  a  very  active  interest, —  might 
be  mentioned  the  law  of  Feb.  3,   1851,  on  the  provision  of  cheap  or 
free  public  baths  (Moniteur  universel,  Feb.  10,  1851,  p.  429)  ;  the  law 
of  March  27,   1851,  on  repression  of   frauds  in  the  sale  of  merchan- 
dise  (Moniteur  universel,  April  2,  1851,  p.  955)  ;  the  law  of  May  21, 
1851,  emancipating  the  workingman  from  the  veritable  peonage  which 
indebtedness  to  his  employer  sometimes  brought  about  (ibid.,  May  21, 
1851,  p.  1427)  ;  the  law  of  Dec.  10,  1850,  facilitating  the  marriage  of 
paupers  by  reducing  official  fees  (ibid.,  Dec.  18,  1850,  p.  3609)  ;  the  law 
of  Dec.  19,  1850,  on  usury  (ibid.,  Dec.  26-27,  1850,  p.  3707)  ;  the  law  of 
Jan.  22,  1851,  on  free  legal  service  (ibid.,  Jan.  30,  1851,  p.  303). 

230  Correspondant,  Feb.  25,  1882,  p.  670. 

231  Report  by  M.  Thiers,  in  the  name  of  the  commission  on  public 
assistance  and  provident  institutions,  Jan.  26,   1850,  in  Moniteur  uni- 
versel, 1850,  p.  304,  et  seq.    Thiers  recommended  the  encouragement 
of  miscellaneous  charitable  institutions  and  of  mutual  aid  societies,  the 
improvement  of  dwellings,  etc. 

232  Quoted  by  Dreyfus,  op.  cit.,  p.  141,  from  Melun's  Memoires,  vol. 
ii,  p.  57,  et  seq. 

233  Correspondant,  Feb.  1882,  p.  661. 

234  Written  in  October,   1852,  when  Louis  Napoleon  was  acclaimed 
with  cries  of  "  Vive  VEmpereur."    Quoted  in  Correspondant,  Feb.  25, 
1882,  pp.  671-672. 

235  Written  in  1855.     Ibid.,  March  25,  1882,  pp.  1099-1100. 

236  Correspondant,  March  25,  1882,  p.  1091. 

237  E.  Levasseur,  Histoire  des  classes  ouvrieres  et  de  I'industrie  en 
France  de  1789  a  1870  (2nd  ed.  Paris  1903-1904),  vol.  ii,  p.  343;  fimile 
Thomas,  Histoire  des  ateliers  nationaux  (Paris,  1848),  pp.  19-21;  Louis 
Blanc,  Histoire  de  la  revolution  de  1848  (Paris,  1870),  vol.  i,  ch.  vii. 

238  Smile  Thomas,  Histoire  des  ateliers  nationaux,  p.  27 ;  Levasseur, 
op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  p.  382. 


420  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

239  Levasseur,   op.  cit.,  vol.   ii,   ch.   ii ;   Louis   Blanc,  Histoire  de  la 
revolution  de  1848,  vol.  i,  pp.  136  et  seq.;  Fighiera,  La  Protection  legate 
des  travailleurs  en  France   (Paris,  1913),  vol.  i,  p.  64,  et  seq. 

240  Louis  Blanc,  L 'Organisation  du  travail  (Paris,  1839). 

241  Louis    Blanc,    in    his    Appel   aux   honnetes   gens    (Paris,    1849), 
definitely  repudiates  the  "  national  workshops,"  and  alleges  that  fimile 
Thomas,  who  was  selected  as  director,  was  not  only  a  stranger  to  him, 
but  an   indefatigable   antagonist  of   his    doctrines;    see   especially   pp. 
20-31.     £mile  Thomas,  in  his  own  account  of  the  affair, —  Histoire  des 
ateliers  nationaux, —  shows  clearly  enough  that  he  was  no  disciple  of 
Louis  Blanc  (p.  323)  ;  his  aim  was  not  to  apply  Louis  Blanc's  theories, 
but  to  realize  "  the  Saint-Simonian  idea  of  semi-military  organization 
of  the  workers"  (p.  35).    Cf.  Levasseur,  op  cit.,  vol.  ii,  ch.  iii;  J.  A. 
R.  Marriott,  The  French  Revolution  of  1848  in  its  Economic  Aspect 
vol.  i,  p.  Ixix,  et  seq.;  Louis  Blanc,  Histoire  de  la  revolution  de  1848, 
vol.  i,  ch.  xi,  passim. 

242  Levasseur,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  370,  372;  Louis  Blanc,  Histoire  de 
la  revolution  de  1848,  vol.  ii,  ch.  xix,  p.  222. 

243  Gide  and  Rist,  Histoire  des  doctrines  economiques,  p.  351. 

244  Gide  and  Rist,  op.  cit.,  pp.  234-308. 

245  Cf.  supra,  ch.  i,  p.  26. 

246  Cf.  Calippe,  L' Attitude  sociale  des  catholiques,  vol.  i,  pp.  8-9,  and 
Nitti,  Catholic  Socialism,  p.  84. 

247  Pierre   Leroux,   De   I'Humanite    (Paris,    1840),   and  De   I'ftgalite 
(Paris,   1838),  passim. 

248  For   example,   see   his    Organisation   du   travail    (Sth   ed.,    Paris, 
1848),  pp.  6-7. 

249  Weill,  Histoire  du  mouvement  social  en  France,  p.  52,  et  seq. 

250  Correspondance    de   P.   J.   Proudhon    (Paris,    1875),   vol.   vi,   pp. 
110-11.     Cf.  Weill,  op.  cit.,  pp.  38,  53;  Gide  and  Rist,  op.  cit.,  p.  339, 
et  seq.     Proudhon  in  his  Confessions  d'un  revolutionnaire    (new  ed., 
Paris,    1876),    says   that   there   is   an   "eternal    dilemma," — "either   no 
papacy,  or  no  liberty"   (p.  261).     On  the  other  hand,  "Christianity  is 
the  best  expression  of  religion,  up  to  the  present"  (ibid.,  p.  267). 

251  That  the  modern  socialist  movement  in  France  is  pronouncedly 
anticlerical,  even  anti-Christian,  is  a  thesis  hardly  requiring  documenta- 
tion ;  but  the  reader  who  desires  an  explanation  of  this  antagonism 
should  consult  the  opinions  expressed  by  leading  socialists,  in  reply  to 
a  questionnaire  or  "  Enquete  sur  1'anticlericalisme  et  le  socialisme  "  in 
Le  Mouvement  socialiste  of  1902;  also,  the  article  on  "Socialisme  et 
I'&glise "    in  La  Revue  socialiste,  1903,  vol.  xxxviii,  p.  35',  et  seq.     On 
the  other  side  of  the  controversy,  vide  Victor  Cathrein,  S.  J.,  Socialism 
(translated  from  the  German,  New  York,  1904),  p.  204,  et  seq. 

252  Debidotir,  Histoire  des  rapports  de  I'cglise  et  de  I'etat  en  France 
de  1789  a  1870,  p.  518.     Compare  Montalembert's  declaration  with  the 
view  of  the  Ere  nouvelle,  that  "  there  is  an  honest  Christian  socialism, 
and  the  Revolution  in  proclaiming  itself  social  has  yielded  to  a  move- 
ment which   is   the  very  impulse   of  the   evangelic    spirit," —  Joly,   Le 
Socialisme  chrctien  (Paris,  1892),  ch.  iv. 


APPENDIX  421 

253  Calippe,  L' Attitude  sociale  des  catholiques,  vol.  iii,  pp.  51-69. 

254Augustin  Cochin,  De  la  Condition  des  ouvriers  franqais  (Paris, 
1862),  p.  29.  Cf.  also  Cochin's  pamphlets  entitled  Lettre  sur  I'etat  du 
pauperising  en  Angleterre  (Paris,  1854),  and  Progres  des  sciences  et 
de  V Industrie  au  point  de  vue  chretien  (Paris,  1863),  as  well  as  his 
La  Reforme  sociale  (Paris,  1865),  and  Etudes  so  dales  et  economiques 
(Paris,  1880). 

255  Viae    j.    Bourgeois,    Le    Catholicisme    et    les    questions   sociales 
(Paris,  1867),  passim. 

256  Cf.  Calippe,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  191,  et  seq. 

257  Huet,  Le  Regne  social  du  christianisme  (Paris,  1853). 

258  Vide  Huet,  Le  Regne  social  du  christianisme,  and  fible,  op.  cit., 
p.  31,  et  seq. 

259  Frederic  Le  Play   (1806-1882)   began  his  career  as  a  mining  en- 
gineer.    Between  1829  and  1853  he  travelled  extensively,  making  care- 
ful observations  of  social  conditions.     These  observations  he  published 
in  the  form  of  thirty-six  monographs  on  working-class  families,  under 
the  title  Les  Ouvriers  europeens  (1855).     In  1864  appeared  his  second 
important  work,  La  Reforme  sociale  en  France, —  an  exposition  of  his 
theories, —   and  in  1877  an  enlarged  edition  of  his  Ouvriers  europeens. 

He  enjoyed  great  prestige  and  exercised  a  certain  influence  upon 
the  emperor.  The  Society  for  Social  Economy  was  founded  by  him  in 
1856.  After  Le  Play's  death,  divergent  tendencies,  leading  to  a  definite 
schism,  appeared  among  his  followers.  One  school,  organized  in  the 
Unions  of  Social  Peace,  and  publishing  the  review  La  Reforme  sociale, 
held  firmly  to  Le  Play's  system.  The  other  school,  which  publishes 
the  review  La  Science  sociale,  follows  Le  Play's  scientific  method  of 
careful  observation,  on  a  somewhat  different  basis,  to  be  sure,  but 
lays  greater  stress  on  the  influence  of  geographic  environment  and  re- 
gards the  family  of  the  American  type,  rather  than  of  the  English  or 
Chinese  type,  as  the  desirable  unit  of  social  organization.  Both  schools 
are  conservative  and  anti-socialist  in  their  tendency.  On  Le  Play  see 
P.  Ribot,  Expose  critique  des  doctrines  sociales  de  M.  Le  Play  (Paris, 
1882)  ;  Ch.  de  Ribbe,  Le  Play  d'apres  sa  correspondance  (2nd  ed.,  Paris, 
1006)  ;  Auburtin,  Frederic  Le  Play  d'apres  lui-meme  (Paris,  1906)  ; 
H.  Higgs,  article  on  Le  Play  in  Harvard  Quarterly  Journal  of  Econ- 
omics. June,  1800;  Calippe,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  71-92,  305-307;  Gide 
and  Rist,  op.  cit.,  p.  572,  et  seq.:  Weill,  Histoire  du  mouvement  social 
en  France,  pp.  23-25,  387-389;  fible,  Les  Ecoles  catholiques  etc.,  ch.  ii; 
L' Association  catholique,  vol.  xiii,  pp.  559-579;  obituary  in  La  Reforme 
sociale,  vol.  iii.  pp.  345-360,  410-412,  430-438,  474-482. 

260  Le  Play,  La  Reforme  sociale  en  France  (6th  ed.),  vol.  ii,  pp.  302- 
305,  vol.  iii,  p.  190,  et  seq. 

261  Idem,  Cf.  Calippe,  op.  cit.,  pp.  88-90;  fible,  op.  cit.,  p.  112,  ct  seq.; 
Weill,  op.  cit.,  p.  387. 

262  Cf.   Calippe.  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  88-89 ;   £ble,  op.  cit.,  p.   109,  et 
seq.:  Gide  and  Rist.  op.  cit.,  p.  577 

263  Le  Play,  La  Reforme  sociale  en  France,  vol.  iii,  pp.  22-23. 


422  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

264  E.    Martin    Saint-Leon,    Histoire    des    corporations    de    metiers, 
(Paris,  1897),  p.  619. 

265  Le  Play,  La  Reforme  sociale  en  France,  vol.  iii,  p.  21. 

266  Weill,  op.  cit.,  p.  71. 

267  Le  Play,  La  Reforme  sociale  en  France,  vol.  iii,  ch.  50,  is  espe- 
cially interesting  as  embodying  his  doctrine  on  "  patronage." 

268  Weill,  op.  cit.,  p.  71. 

269  Le  Play,  La  Reforme  sociale  en  France,  vol.  iv,  p.  339.    There 
should  be  democracy  in  the  communes,,  aristocracy  in  the  provinces, 
and  monarchy  in  the  national  government. 

270  V.  Le   Play,  La  Reforme  sociale  en  France,  introduction ;   Les 
Ouvriers  europeens  (2nd  ed.,  Tours,  1878),  vol.  v,  p.  528. 

271  Le  Play,  L 'Organisation  du  travail  (first  ed.,  Tours,  1870),  fourth 
ed.,  Tours,  1877,  p.  201. 

272  Le  Play,  La  Reforme  sociale  en  France,  book  i ;  L' Organisation  du 
travail,  ch.  v. 

273  Henri   Charles  Xavier   Perin    (1815-1905),  a   Belgian   economist. 
He  began  his  career  as  a  lawyer  at  Brussels,  but  was  called  to  fill  the 
chair  of  public  law  in  the  Catholic  University  of  Louvain,   1844.    In 
1845   he  began   to   teach   political    economy,    at   the    same   institution. 
During  the  Second  Empire  period  he  exercised  a  steadily  increasing 
influence   over   French   Catholic   thought,  through   his   University  lec- 
tures, his  articles  in  French  periodicals,  and  his  books.    Among  his 
writings,  the  following  works  may  be  mentioned :    Les  £conomistes, 
les  socialistes  et  le  christianisme   (Paris,  1849)  ;  Du  Pr ogres  materiel 
et  du  renoncement  chretien   (1850,  a  collection  of  articles  first  pub- 
lished in  Le  Correspondant,  a  French  review)  ;  De  la  Richesse  dans 
les  societes  chretiennes    (2   vols.,    Paris,    1861,   second   edition   1868)  ; 
Les  Libertes  populaires  (Paris,  1871)  ;  Les  Lois  de  la  societe  chretienne 
(2  vols.,  Paris,  1875)  ;  Le  Socialisme  chretien  (Paris,  1879)  ;  Les  Doc- 
trines economiques  depuis  un  siecle  (Paris,  1880)  ;  L' Association  ouv- 
riere    (pamphlet,   Lille,    1881)  ;    Melanges   de   politique   et   d 'economic 
(Paris,  1883)  ;  Le  Patron,  sa  fonction,  ses  devoirs,  ses  responsabilites 
(Paris,  1886)  ;  Premiers  principes  d'economie  politique   (Paris,  1895)  ; 
Premiers    principes    d'economie    politique.     Seconde    edition,   revue    el 
complctce,  suivie  d'une  etude  sur  le  juste  salaire.   d'apr&s  I'encyclique 
Rerum  Novarum   (Paris,  1896). 

274  Mgr.  Fevre,  Charles  Perin,  createur  de  I 'economic  politique  chre- 
tienne  (Paris,  1903). 

275  De  Clercq,  Les  Doctrines  sociales  en  France,  vol.  ii,  p.  7. 

276  Nitti,   Catholic  Socialism,  p.  263. 

277  Fevre,  Charles  Perin  createur  de  I'economie  politique  chretienne, 
p.  121. 

278  Perin,  Les  Lois  de  la  societe  chretienne,  especially  livrc  iv. 

279  Perin  was  not  a  partisan  of  absolute  liberty,  in  the  sense  of  in- 
dividualism ;  what  he  advocated  was  liberty  tempered  by  voluntary  as- 
sociation and  properly  used  in  accordance  with  moral  laws.     Cf.  Le 
Socialisme  chretien,  p.  10. 


APPENDIX  423 

280  Perin,  Le  Sodalisme  chretien,  (Paris,  1879),  p.  32;  De  la  Richesse 
(second  ed.)  vol.  i,  p.  141,  vol.  ii,  p.  477,  et  seq. 

281  Nitti,  Catholic  Socialism,  p.  264. 

282  Perin,  Le  Sodalisme  chretien,  p.  16. 

283  Perin,  Premiers  principes  (ist  ed.)  pp.  39-40. 

284  Ibid. 

285  Perin,  Les  fcconomistes  etc.,  ch.  v ;  De  la  Richesse,  vol.  ii,  p.  259, 
et  seq.;  Premiers  principes,  passim. 

286  Cf.  Premiers  principes,  p.  144,  et  seq.;  De  la  Richesse,  vol.  ii,  pp. 
259-352 ;  Les  Doctrines  economiques,  p.  233 ;  Le  Patron,  ch.  iii,  xi. 

287  Metz-Noblat,  Les  Lois  economiques,  resume  du  cours  d'economie 
politique  fait  a  la  faculte  de  droit  de  Nancy  en  1865  et  1866   (Paris, 
1867),  p.  xxii,  et  passim.    These  laws,  he  admits,  are  not  absolutely  in- 
flexible. 

288  Metz-Noblat,  op.  cit.,  passim,  especially  ch.  xv  and  xxv ;  see  also 
his    Analyse    des    phenomenes    economiques    (Nancy,    1853),    vol.    i, 
ch.  x. 

289  Metz-Noblat,  Les  Lois  economiques,  p.  xvii. 

290  J.    Rambaud,    Histoire    des    doctrines   economiques,    (Paris    and 
Lyons,  1902),  second  edition,  p.  295. 

291  Metz-Noblat,  Analyse  des  phenomenes  economiques,  vol.  i,  ch.  xxv, 
Les  Lois  economiques,  ch.  vii,  xlii.    After  discussing  the  relative  merits 
of  state  action  and  private  charity  for  the  relief  of  poverty,  he  con- 
cludes in  favor  of  the  latter. 

292  Metz-Noblat,  Les  Lois  economiques,  p.  726,  et  seq. 

293  Ibid.,  ch.  xxxiv. 

294  Corbiere,  L'fcconomie  sociale  au  point  de  vue  chretien    (Paris, 
1863),  passim. 

295  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  pp.  225-230. 

296  Ibid.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  273-291,  372-384. 

297  Ibid.,  p.  380,  et  seq. 

298  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  278,  et  seq. 

299  Weill,  Histoire  du  mouvement  social,  ch.  i-ii. 

300  Auguste  Comte,  the  great  positivist  philosopher  and  sociologist, 
played  an  important  role  in  denouncing  revolution,  in  preaching  social 
peace,  in  emphasizing  the  moral  aspect  of  the  social  problem. 

301  Journal  des  tLconomistes,  second  series,  vol.  xv,  p.  275. 

302  Quoted  in  Weill,  op.  cit.,  p.  4.    It  must  be  remembered,  however, 
that   in    practice    Louis    Napoleon   promoted    a   number    of    legislative 
measures  in  the  interest  of  the  working-classes.     Cf.  Levasseur,  His- 
toire des  classes  ouvrieres  et  de  Vindustrie  en  France  de  1789  a  1870, 
vol.  ii,  livre  vi,  passim,  especially  pp.  828-836 ;  P.  L.  Fournier,  Le  second 
empire  et  la  legislation  ou-vriere  (Paris,  1911). 

303  Jules  Simon,  La  Liberte   (Paris,  1857),  second  edition,  vol.  i,  p. 
204. 

304  Jules  Simon,  L'Oumiere   (Paris,  1861),  especially  part  iv,  ch.  i. 
See  also  his  later  books,  Le  Travail  (Paris,  1866),  and  L'Ouvrie'r  de 
huit  ans  (Paris,  1867). 


424  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

sos  Jules  Simon,  La  Liberte,  vol.  ii,  p.  126. 

306  Ibid.,  p.  118. 

307  Ibid.,  p.  125 

sos  yide  Louis  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  Des  Idees  Napoleoniennes  (Lon- 
don, 1839)  J  Extinction  du  pauperisme  (Paris,  1844).  On  the  social 
policy  of  the  Second  Empire,  cf.  Weill,  Histoire  du  mouvement  social 
en  France,  ch.  i-vi ;  P.  L.  Fournier,  Le  second  empire  et  la  legislation 
ouvricre  (Paris,  1911)  ;  Levasseur,  Histoire  des  classes  ouvrieres  et 
de  I' Industrie  en  France  de  1789  a  1870,  vol.  ii,  livre  vi;  A.  Thomas, 
Le  Second  Empire  (in  the  Histoire  Socialist  e).  For  suggestions  re- 
garding the  political  philosophy  of  the  Second  Empire,  see  H.  A.  L. 
Fisher's  lectures  on  Bonapartism  (Oxford,  1908),  or  the  more  sub- 
stantial works  of  Pierre  de  La  Gorce,  Taxtile  Delord,  fonile  Ollivier, 
and  Jerrold. 

309  Ollivier,  L'Empire  liberal  (Paris,  1895-1912),  vol.  v,  p.  8,  et  seq.; 
vol.  vi,  p.  154,  et  seq.,  and  p.  248,  et  seq.;  La  Gorce,  Histoire  du  second 
empire   (Paris,  1899-1905),  vol.  iii,  p.  457,  et  seq.;  Debidour,  Histoire 
des  rapports  de  I'cglise  et  de  I'ctat,  part  ii,  ch.  vi-viii. 

310  Ollivier,  L'Empire  liberal,  vol.  vi,  p.  98,  et  seq.,  157,  et  seq.,  328, 
et  seq.;  La  Gorce,  Histoire  du  second  empire,  vol.  iv,  p.  414,  et  seq. 

311  Ollivier,  L'Empire  liberal,  vol.  vi,  p.  436,  et  seq.,  574,  et  seq.,  vol. 
vii,  p.  514,  et  seq.,  vol.  ix,  p.  58,  et  seq.,  523,  et  seq.;  La  Gorce,  Histoire 
du  second  empire,  vol.  iv,  p.  6,  et  seq.,  308,  et  seq.;  T.  Delord,  Histoire 
du  second  empire  (Paris,  1869-1874),  vol.  iii,  ch.  ix-x;  vol.  iv,  ch.  iv; 
vol.  v,  ch.  iv. 

312  Debidour,  Histoire  des  rapports  de  I'cglise  et  de  I'etat,  p.  582. 

313  Ibid.,  p.  573.    La  Gorce,  Histoire  du  second  empire,  vol.  iv,  p.  134, 
et  seq.;  T.  Delord,  Histoire  du  second  empire,  vol.  iii,  p.  216,  et  seq. 

314  La  Gorce,  Histoire  du  second  empire,  vol.  ii,  p.  97,  et  seq.,  vol. 
iv,  p.  190;  T.  Delord,  Histoire  du  second  empire,  vol.  iii,  p.  398;   cf. 
Ollivier,  L'Empire  liberal,  vol.  xi,  p.  557,  et  seq,,  vol.  xii,  p.  341,  et  seq. 
The  Legitimist  pretender  consistently  represented  the  traditional  mon- 
archy as  the  true  protector  of  religion,  as  will  be  seen  by  consulting  his 
letters,    conveniently   published    in    £tude    politique :    M.    le    comte    de 
Chambord,  correspondance  de  1841  a  1871  (Geneva,  1871). 

315  Summary  of  excerpts  reprinted  in  La  Monarchic  frangaise :     Let- 
ires  et   documents  politiques    (1844-1907)    (Paris,    1907),   pp.  202-207. 

316  Lettre  sur  les  ouvriers,  April  20,   1865,  reprinted  in   full  in  La 
Monarchic  jranqaise,  pp.  84-91.     As  early  as  Jan.   12,  1855,  the  Count 
of  Chambord  had  written : 

"  As  regards  labor  associations,  during  recent  years  they  have  un- 
dergone a  development  which  has  by  no  means  escaped  my  attention. 
By  conforming  to  ideas  of  order,  of  morality,  of  mutual  aid,  by  regu- 
larizing their  existence  under  the  tutelary  authority  of  the  laws  and 
by  avoiding,  along  with  the  abuses  of  monopoly  which  in  another  epoch 
led  to  the  suppression  of  the  old  trades  organizations,  all  that  which 
might  make  them  instruments  of  disorders  and  of  revolutions,  these 
associations  will  more  and  more  constitute  serious  collective  interests, 


APPENDIX  425 

which  will  naturally  have  the  right  to  be  represented  and  heard  in 
order  that  they  may  be  sufficiently  protected." 

V .  L' Association  catholique,  1882,  vol.  xiv,  p.  147.  Cf.  E.  Demolins, 
"  Les  Doctrines  sociales  de  M.  le  comte  de  Chambord,"  in  La  Reforme 
sociale,  1883,  vol.  vi,  pp.  289-292. 

317  Ibid.,  pp.  86-87. 

S18lbid.,  p.  87. 

319/&irf.,  pp.  84-91. 

320  Ibid.,  pp.  89-90. 

321  Ibid.,  p.  91. 

322  fitienne  Martin  Saint-Leon,  Histoire  des  corporations  de  metiers, 
(Paris,   1897),  p.  538,  et  seq. 

323  La  Monarchic  franfaise,  p.  91. 

324  Supra,  pp.  27-28. 

325  This  fact  is  recognized  by  writers  of  the  most  divergent  social 
views.     Cf.   Weill,   Histoire   du   mouvement  social  en  France,  p.    141, 
et  seq.;  G.  Hanotaux,  Contemporary  France   (tr.  from  the  French  by 
J.  C.  Tarver,  N.  Y.,  1912),  vol.  i,  pp.  163-169;  E.  Zevort,  Histoire  de 
la  Troisieme  Republique    (Paris,    1899),  vol.   i,  p.  208;   Dubreuilh,  La 
Commune,  1871   (vol.  xi  of  the  Histoire  socialiste  edited  by  Jaures), 
passim. 

326  The  events  of  the  Commune  are  among  the  most  controversial  in 
French   history,   and   consequently   historians   of   the    Commune   differ 
radically  not  only  in  their  general  interpretation  of  the  revolution  but 
even    in   their   statement   of   the    facts,    Cf.    Hanotaux,    Contemporary 
France,  vol.  i,  ch.  iii ;  Lissagaray,  Histoire  de  la  Commune  (the  second 
edition  was  not  permitted  to  be  published  in  French  but  was  trans- 
lated by  E.  M.  Aveling  as,  History  of  the  Commune  of  1871  (London, 
1886)  ;  L.  Fiaux,  Histoire  de  la  guerre  civile  de  1871   (Paris,  1879)  ; 
Maxime  du  Camp,  Les  Convulsions  de  Paris   (4  vols.,   Paris,   1881)  ; 
A.  Bertrand,  Les  Origines  de  la  Troisieme  Republique   (Paris,   1911), 
pp.  50-130;  B.  Becker,  Geschichte  und  Theorie  der  Pariser  revolution- 
dren  Kommunc  des  Jahres  1871  (Leipzig,  1879)  '»  E.  Lepelletier,  Histoire 
de  la  Commune  de  1871   (2  vols.,  Paris,  1911-1912)  ;   Jules  Claretie's 
quaintly   illustrated    Histoire   de    la   Revolution    de    1870-1871    (Paris, 
1872)  ;  Dubreuilh,  La  Commune,  1871  (in  the  Jaures  series,  Paris,  1008). 
Perhaps  the  most  interesting  source-material  is  found  in  the  Enquete 
parlementaire  sur  I' insurrection  du  18  mars   (Versailles,  1872)  ;  Count 
Albert  de  Mun's  testimony  appears  on  pp.  275-277. 

In  particular,  opinions  differ  as  to  the  number  of  persons  killed  and 
executed.  Hanotaux  asserts  that  "Paris  lost  80,000  citizens"  (op.  cit., 
p.  228)  ;  Seignobos,  in  Lavisse  et  Rambaud,  Histoire  Generale  (Paris, 
1001),  vol.  xiii,  p.  7,  mentions  17,000  killed;  Lissagaray,  p.  393.  declares 
that  20,000  is  no  exaggeration ;  Lt.  Col.  Rousset,  in  1871,  La  Commune 
a  Paris  ct  en  province  (Paris,  1912),  p.  249,  gives  the  losses  of  the 
Versailles  army  as  7,514  and,  as  regards  the  losses  of  the  insurgents, 
mentions  estimates  running  as  high  as  30,000  or  40,000  but  considers 
these  exaggerated.  The  conflict  of  opinions  on  this  one  point  shows 


426  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

how  much  uncertainty  obscures  the  true  history  of  the  insurrection. 

327  Bertrand,  Origines  de  la  Troisieme  Republique,  pp.  118-127. 

328  Jules  Favre,  Discours  parlementaires  (Paris,  1881),  vol.  iv,  p.  85, 
et  seq. 

329  E.  Levasseur,  Questions  ouvricres  et  industrielles  en  France  sous 
la  Troisieme  Republique   (Paris,  1907),  p.  472. 

330  Weill,  Histoire  du  mouvement  social  en  France,  p.  172 ;  E.  Martin- 
Saint-Leon,  Histoire  des  corporations  de  metiers,  p.  538,  et  seq.    By 
article  414  of  the  penal  code,  as  it  existed  before  1864,  any  coalition, 
whether  on  the  part  of  employers  for  the  purpose  of  lowering  wages, 
or  on  the  part  of  the  laborers  with  a  view  of   stopping  work  in  a 
factory,  was  ipso  facto  a  misdemeanor;  the  leaders  were  subject  to  a 
penalty  of   from  two  to  five  years'   imprisonment,   and   their  accom- 
plices to  imprisonment  from  six  days  to  three  months  and  a  fine  of 
from  sixteen  to  3,000  francs.    In  1864  the  article  was  amended,  so  that 
mere  membership  in  such  coalitions  was  not  penalized,  except  in  case 
of  violence,  assault,  menaces,  or  fraudulent  manoeuvres. 

331  These  words  are  taken  from  the  speech  of  M.  Aclocque,  in  the 
National  Assembly,  meeting  of  May  15,  1872.    Journal  oMciel,  May  16, 
1872,  p.  3277. 

332  Rapport  fait  au  nom  de  la  commission  d'enquete  sur  les  conditions 
du  travail  en  France,  par  M.  Ducarre,  Aug.  2,  1875,  in  Journal  officiel, 
November  15-22,  1875,  pp.  9339;  9369,  9396,  9425,  9465,  9483,  9519,  9561. 
The  quotation  is  from  p.  9483.     Another  report  on  the  conditions  of 
the  laboring  classes  was  made  at  about  the  same  time  by  Count  de 
Melun,  a  brother  of  the  philanthropist  of  the  same  name  mentioned 
on  an  earlier  page;  this  report  is  found  in  the  Journal  officiel,  August 
14,  1875,  pp.  6788-6792.     Neither  report  was  discussed  by  the  National 
Assembly;   both   concluded   that   little   or   nothing  should   be   done  to 
remedy  the  existing  evils.     There  is  an  interesting  analysis  of  the  two 
reports,  and  a  protest  against  their  spirit,  in  the  Social  Catholic  organ, 
U Association  catholique,  1876,  vol.  i,  pp.  57-78. 

333  Vide,  Le  Play's  review,  La  Reforme  sociale  (from  1881)   during 
this  period,  or  the  Association  catholique   (from  1876),  or  the  Revue 
Catholique  des  institutions  et  du  droit   (from  1873),  or  Charles  Perin 
Le  Socialisme  chretien   (Paris,  1879). 

334Hanotaux,  op.  cit.,  vol.  iii,  pp.  198-9,  218,  219,  222;  Weill,  of.  cit., 

P.  145- 

335  Charles  Perin,  Le  Socialisme  chretien,  p.  8,  et  seq. 

336  Association  catholique,  vol.  i,  p.   13,  et  seq.;  Weill,  op.  cit.,  pp. 
183-184. 

337  A.   Delaire,   "  Le   Programme   d'Action   des   Unions   de   la   Paix 
sociale,"  in    La  Reforme  sociale,  vol.  i,  pp.  393-402. 

838  Albert  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale  (Paris,  1908). 

339  Grandmaison,  "  Le  Comte  Albert  de  Mun,"  in  fitudcs  publiees  par 
des  peres  de  la  compagnie  de  Jesus,  October,  1914,  vol.  141,  p.  26.  It 
it  a  curious  circumstance  that  de  Mun's  grandfather  was  Helvetius,  the 
famous  materialist  philosophe*  For  biographical  material  on  de  Mun, 
in  addition  to  the  autobiographical  work,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  already 


APPENDIX  427 

cited,  consult:  A.  de  Mun,  "  Quatre  annees  d'action  sociale  (1871-1875)," 
in  Le  Correspondant,  Paris,  1908,  vol.  233,  new  series  vol.  197,  pp.  449- 
474,  625-649;  idem,  Discours  (7  vols.,  Paris,  1888-1904)  ;  idem,  Com- 
bats d'hier  et  d'aujourd'hui  (Paris,  1908)  ;  A.  Saint-Pierre,  Le  Comte 
Albert  de  Mun  (Montreal,  1915)  ;  Eugene  Tavernier,  "  Le  Comte  de 
Mun,"  in  Nineteenth  Century  and  After,  London,  1915,  vol.  77,  pp. 
409-420;  G.  de  Grandmaison,  "La  derniere  oeuvre  du  comte  Albert 
de  Mun,"  in  Le  Correspondant,  1914,  vol.  257,  pp.  657-680;  Lucien 
Degron,  "  M.  le  comte  Albert  de  Mun  et  son  oeuvre,"  in  Revue  de  Lille, 
1910,  annee  xxi,  pp.  286-302;  L.  de  Grandmaison,  "  Le  Comte  Albert 
de  Mun,"  in  Etudes  publiees  par  des  pcres  de  la  compagnie  de  Jesus, 
Paris,  1914,  vol.  141,  pp.  25-52;  Dictionnaire  des  parlementaires  fran- 
fais,  vol.  iv,  pp.  456-457. 

340  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  2,  et  seq. 

341  fimile  Keller,  L'Encyclique  du  8  decembre  1864  et  les  principes  de 
1789,  ou  I'eglise  I'etat  et  la  liberte  (1865)  ;  a  revised  edition  was  pub- 
lished in  1909  under  the  title,  Les  Syllabus  de  Pie  IX  et  Pie  X,  etc. 
Keller  represented  the  department  of  Haut-Rhin  in  the  Corps  legislatif 
of  the  Second  Empire. 

342  A.   de   Mun,   Ma   Vocation  sociale,  pp.    13-14.    On   the   German 
movement,  Cf.  infra,  pp.  121-129. 

343  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  pp.  17-36.    The  horror  which 
he  felt  at  the  sight  of  the  corpse-strewn  working-quarters  in  the  Belle- 
ville ward  is  expressed  in  U  Association  catholique,  vol.  i,  p.  91. 

344  I  have  spelled  his  name  as  de  Mun  spells  it  in  Ma  Vocation  sociale, 
pp.  60-62;   Leonce   de   Grandmaison,   in  Etudes,  vol.    141,  p.   30,   uses 
the    spelling    "  Meignen."     Cf.    biographical"   article    by    Marolles    in 
U  Association  catholique,  vol.  xxxi,  pp.  273-284,  414-424. 

345  Otherwise  and  more  properly  styled  the  Congregation  of  Priests 
of  the  Mission;  sometimes  called  also  the  Vincentians  and  the  Lazar- 
ists.    The  order  was  founded  by  Saint  Vincent  de  Paul  in  1625  for 
work  among  the  poorer  classes  in  rural  districts.     This  religious  order 
is  not  to  be  confused  with  the  lay  Society  of  Saint  Vincent-de-Paul, 
founded  by  Ozanam  in  1833.     Cf.  "  Mission,  Congregation  of  Priests  of 
the,"  in  Catholic  Encyclopedia. 

346  The  Cercle  des  jeunes  ouvriers   (founded  in   1865)   was  an  off- 
shoot of  a  patronage  d'apprentis  or  apprentices'  welfare  society,  founded 
by  the  Brothers  of  Saint  Vincent-de-Paul. —  Cf.  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Voca- 
tion sociale,  p.  57;  Calippe,  L' Attitude  sociale,  vol.  iii,  p.  108,  et  seq. 
Rene  de  La  Tour  du  Pin,  de  Mun's  close  friend,  had  previously  been 
induced  to  speak  before  the  club. 

347  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  62. 

348  Ibid.,  pp.  62-66;  Discours  (fourth  ed.),  vol.  I,  p.  13. 

349  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  pp.  67-75.    The  first  session  of 
the  committee  was  held   in  Vrignault's   "humble   chamber,"   Dec.   23, 
1871.    Vrignault  was  elected  president,  but  de  Mun  seems  to  have  been 
the  active  spirit.     Cf.  Lecanuet,  L'Eglise  de  France  sous  la  Troisieme 
Republique  (Paris,  1007-10),  vol.  i,  p.  394. 

850  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  107. 


428  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

351  Ibid.,  pp.  107-112;  Discours,  vol.  i,  pp.  21-32. 

352  Cf.  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  pp.  in,  295. 

353  Hanotaux,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i,  p.  218. 

354 "  Nous  descendimes   la  colline   dans   une   ivresse  de   victoire." — 
A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  113. 

355  Ibid.,  pp.  131-134. 

356  Ibid.,  p.  139. 

357  "  Vivre  en  travaillant,  ou  mourir  en  combattant."    Ibid.,  p.   140 ; 
cf.  also  Louis  Blanc,  Histoire  de  dix  ans,  1830-1840  (2  vols.  in  one, 
Brussels,  1847),  vol.  i,  pp.  372-386,  especially  p.  385. 

358  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  pp.  225-230. 

359  Some  3,000  of  the  18,000  members  were  recruited  from  the  upper 
and  middle  classes.    A.  de  Mun,  op.  cit.,  p.  278. 

360  Cf.  Lecanuet,  L'ftglise  de  France,  vol.  i,  pp.  409-419 ;  A.  de  Mun, 
Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  278;  Weill,  Histoire  du  mouvement  social  en 
France,  p.  405;  L'Annee  sociale  Internationale,  1013-1014,  p.  42;  Revue 
sociale  catholique,  vol.  xvi,  p.  184. 

361 "  Regardez-le,  il  vous  parle  encore."    A.  de  Mun,  op.  cit.,  p.  155. 

362  Ibid.,  p.  280. 

363  L'Annee  politique,  1875,  p.  292. 

364  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  pp.  282,  283. 

365  By  the  law  of  March  14,  1872.     Cf.  supra,  p.  78. 

see  MacCaffrey,  History  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  vol.  i,  pp.  255-256. 

367  At  a  banquet  in  May,   1873,  Vrignault   proclaimed  the  Counter- 
Revolution,  and  the  leading  members  of  the  Association,  uplifting  their 
hands,  swore  to  accomplish  the  regeneration  of  France    (A.  de  Mun, 
Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  193).     Many  times  de  Mun  repeated  this  dec- 
laration   of    war    against    the    Revolution,    most    notably    perhaps    at 
Chartres,  September  8,  1878 ;  "  we  are  the  implacable  Counter-Revolu- 
tion "  (ibid.,  p.  199). 

368  Cf.  the  "Bases  et  plan  general  de  1'QEuvre"   (A.  de  Mun,  Ma 
Vocation  sociale,  pp.  291-294),  and  also  de  Mun's  deliberate  declaration 
of  the  principles  of  the  Association :  "  To  set  over  against  the  Declara- 
tion of  the  Rights  of  Man,  which  served  as  the  basis  of  the  Revolution, 
the  proclamation  of  the  Rights  of  God,  which  must  be  the  foundation 
of    the    Counter-Revolution,    and    the    ignorance    or    forgetfulness    of 
which  is  the  true  cause  of  the  evil  which  is  bringing  modern  society 
to  ruin ;  to  investigate,  in  absolute  obedience  to  the  principles  of  the 
Catholic  Church  and  to  the  infallible  teaching  of  the  Sovereign  Pontiff, 
all  the  consequences  which  naturally  result,  in  the  social  order,  from 
the  full  exercise  of  this  right  of  God  over  societies;  to  propagate  — 
by   means    of    an    indefatigable    public    apostolate  —  the    doctrine   thus 
established ;    to    form    men    determined    to    adopt    it    as    the    rule    of 
their  public  as  well  as  of  their  private  life ;   and  to  demonstrate  its 
application  in  the  Association  by  the  devotion  of  the  directing  class  to 
the  popular  class ;  to  toil  without  respite  for  the  purpose  of  infusing 
these  principles  and  doctrines  into  custom,  and  of  creating  an  organized 
force  capable  of  making  them  triumph,  to  the  end  that  they  may  find 


APPENDIX  429 

their  expression  in  the  laws  and  in  the  institutions  of  the  nation;  such 
should  be  the  spirit  and  aim  of  our  Association.  .  .  ."  (Ibid.,  p.  285). 
309  The  translation  does  not  exactly  express  the  sense  of  the  original 
phrase,  "  le  denouement  de  la  classe  dirigeante  a  la  classe  populaire,"  — 
A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  pp.  285,  83-84.  In  later  years  the 
ideal  became  more  democratic,  and  a  readjustment  was  necessary. 
In  January,  1912,  for  example,  we  find  de  Mun  declaring  before  the 
General  Assembly  of  the  Association, — "  The  Club  should  not  be  a 
prolonged  patronage,  where  the  authority  of  the  director  suffices  for 
all  things,  regulates  all  things,  decides  all  things,  but  a  veritable  labor 
association,  governed,  administered,  by  its  members  themselves.  This 
was  indeed  in  our  minds  at  the  origin,  and  the  regulations  of  the 
Clubs  bore  the  trace  of  this  very  sincere  thought.  But,  forty  years 
ago,  no  one  would  have  dared,  no  one  would  have  thought  it  possible, 
without  danger,  to  follow  out  the  idea  completely."  Hence,  the  Asso- 
ciation had  tended  too  strongly  to  aristocracy  rather  than  democracy. 
"  The  workingmen's  initiative,  the  sense  of  responsibility  which  results 
from  self-government,  have  been  almost  inevitably  stifled  by  customs, 
by  prejudices,  by  the  rules  imposed."  In  1912,  therefore,  de  Mun  was 
proposing  more  democracy  for  the  Clubs.  "  That  is  the  great  reform 
which  I  should  demand.  .  .  .  We  love  the  workingmen  with  a  loyal 
and  disinterested  heart.  I  demand  that  we  should  love  them  more 
fraternally  than  paternally,"  —  Le  Gaulois,  Jan.  29-31,  1912.  The  aris- 
tocratic conception  of  the  Association,  at  the  outset,  is  simply  another 
illustration  of  the  general  fact  that,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  bourgeois 
liberalism  was  attacked  both  by  reactionary  feudal  nobles  and  by 
revolutionary  workingmen,  and  that  the  nobles  in  many  cases  assumed 
the  role  of  championing  the  working-classes  against  bourgeois  ex- 
ploitation. Members  of  the  feudal  aristocracy  played  a  very  important 
and  a  very  laudable  part  in  promoting  early  factory  legislation ;  merely 
to  mention  Lord  Ashley's  name  is  proof  enough. 

370  Many   other   officers  were   interested   in   the  Association,   among 
them :  General  Borson,  Colonel  Leon,  Captain  de  Parseval,  Captain  de 
Langalerie,  Captain  de  Roquefeuil,  Captain  Recamier,  Captain  de  Hen- 
nezel.     Cf.   Lecanuet,    L'&glise    de   France,   vol.    i,    p.   398.    The   Plan 
general  de  I'CEuzre  aims  to  protect  the  patriotism  as  well  as  the  faith 
of  the  workingmen. — Cf.  A.  de  Mun,  op.  cit.,  pp.  291-294,  and  compare 
with  the  "  Appeal  to  Men  of  Good  Will,"  supra,  p.  83. 

371  A.  de  Mun,   op.  cit..,  p.  210.     In  another  place,  he  admits,   "  Al- 
though strangers  to  politics,  we  were  for  the  most  part  supporters  of 
the  Extreme  Right," — ibid.,  p.  272. 

372  Leon  Gregoire    (Georges  'Goyau)    Le  pape,  les  catholiques  ct  la 
question  sociale   (Paris,  1893),  edition  of  1895,  p.  14.     M.  Goyau  was 
and  is  a  prominent  figure  in  the  more  democratic  wing  of  the  French 
Social  Catholic  movement.     Cf.  obituary  of  Chambord  in  L 'Association 
catholique,  vol.  xvi,  pp.  351-353. 

373  Hanotaux,  Contemporary  France,  vol.  ii,  pp.  48-49,  266-275,  475- 
483,  vol.  iii,  pp.  124-194,  283-362,  446-471. 

374  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  274. 


43°  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

375  Ibid.,  p.  274. 

376  At  that  moment  Gambetta  was  proclaiming  his  campaign  to  free 
"  the  country  of  Voltaire  "  from  the  "  retrograde  and  theocratic  spirit," 
— Lecanuet,  L'fLglise  de  France,  vol.  i,  p.  491. 

377  A.  de  Mun,  Discours,  vol.  ii.  p.  2;  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  312. 
This  electoral  address  should  be  compared  with  Marshal  MacMahon's 
presidential  proclamation  to  the  electorate :   "  I   appeal  to  the  united 
action  of  those  who  place  defense  of  the  social  order,  respect  of  the 
laws,  devotion  to  the  nation,  above  the  memories,  the  aspirations,  and 
the  engagements  of  parties."    The  president  urged  the  nation  to  de- 
feat those  who  menaced  its  internal  security  "  by  the  propagation  of 
anti-social  doctrines  and  revolutionary  programs," — cf.  Annee  politique, 
1876,  pp.  4-5. 

378  Annual  Register,   1876,  p.   141 ;  Journal  officiel,  March  24,   1876, 
p.  2053,  et  seq.    Free-Masonry  had  been  assailed  by  de  Mun  at  Havre, 
Jan.  15,  1876,  as  "  a  supreme  effort  of  Satan  against  Jesus  Christ," — 
Discours,  vol.  i,  p.  168. 

379  Journal  officiel,  March  25,  1876,  p.  2087,  et  seq. 
sso  Journal  officiel,  March  24,  1876,  p.  2056. 

381  Journal  officiel,  March  24,   1876,  p.  2055,   a°d  June  21,   1876,  p. 

4351- 

382  Journal  officiel,  March  25,  1876,  p.  2089. 

383  Journal  officiel,  March  25,   1876,  p.  2089;   Annee  politique,  1876, 
p.  96. 

384  Journal  officiel,  June  21,  1876,  pp.  4348-4360. 

385  Journal  officiel,  July  14,  1876,  pp.  5130-5145. 

386  De  Mun's  speech  in  the  Chamber,  June  3, —  Journal  officiel,  June 
4,  1876,  p.  3840,  et  seq.    The  Guichard  report, —  Journal  officiel,  June  21, 
1876,   pp.    4353-4360, —  on   clerical    influence    in    the   elections   of    1876, 
shows  the  spirit  of  the  men  who  pronounced  de  Mun's  election  invalid. 

387  Dictionnaire  des  parlementaires,  vol.  iv,  p.  457. 

388  Journal  officiel,  March  28,  1878,  pp.  3564-3570. 

389  Journal  officiel,  Feb.  22,  1878,  p.  1856,  et  seq.    This  speech  was 
delivered  in  the  course  of  a  debate  on  the  suppression  of  the  bourses 
des  seminaires. 

390  Journal  officiel,  Feb.  22,  1878,  p.  1859. 

391  Journal  officiel,  May  5,  1877,  p.  3284. 

392  Journal  officiel,  Feb.  19,  1878,  p.  1728. 

393  Journal  officiel,  Feb.  22,  1878,  p.  4862. 

394  Journal  officiel,  Nov.  16,  1878,  pp.  10661,  10664. 

395  Journal  officiel,  March  2J,  1878,  pp.  3447,  3564-3570;  Nov.  7,  1878, 
pp.  10261,  10386-10408;  Nov.  16,  1878,  p.  10661,  et  seq.    After  the  de- 
cision of  the  Chamber,  Nov.  16,  1878,  that  his  election  had  been  invalid, 
de  Mun  once  more  contested  the  Pontivy  seat,  Feb.  2,  1879,  this  time 
unsuccessfully,  being  narrowly  defeated  by  the  Republican  Le  Maguet. 
He  then  threw  himself  enthusiastically  into  extra-parliamentary  cam- 
paigns   against    anticlericalism.     Cf.    Dictionnaire    des    parlementaires, 
vol.  iv,  p.  457;  Saint-Pierre,  Le  comte  Albert  de  Mun,  pp.  43-44.    He 
was  elected  to  the  Chamber  in  August,   1881,  as  representative  of  a 


APPENDIX  431 

new  electoral  district  carved  from  the  former  district  of  Pontivy,  and 
was  reflected  in  1885  and  1889.  In  1893  he  suffered  defeat,  but  the  fol- 
lowing January  tound  him  again  in  parliament  as  deputy  from  the 
second  district  of  Morlaix,  and  from  1894  to  the  time  of  his  death,  in 
1914,  he  was  continuously  reflected.  Cf.  Dictionnaire  des  parlemen- 
taires,  loc.  cit. 

396  After  the  death  of  the  Count  of  Chambord,  the  Legitimist  pre- 
tender, in  1883,  de  Mun  became  one  of  the  leading  supporters  of  the 
Orleanist  candidate  for  the  throne,  the  Count  of  Paris ;  but  he  seems 
to  have  been  somewhat  out  of  place  in  the  Orleanist  party.     In  1885 
he  attempted  to  found  a  Catholic  party,  but  was  discouraged  by  the 
papal    nuncio.    Later,    in    1888,    he    gave    his    support    to    Boulanger. 
After  the  Boulanger  episode,  he  was  suspected  of  abandoning  mon- 
archism.     In  1892  he  became  a  leader  in  the  movement  for  acceptance 
of  the  republic.     Cf.  A.  de  Mun,  Les  derniers  jours  du  drapeau  blanc 
(Paris,   1910);   L.  de  Grandmaison,  "  Le  comte  Albert  de   Mun,"   in 
Etudes,  Oct.,  1914,  vol.  141,  pp.  25-52. 

397  Disc ours,  vol.  ii,  p.  387,  et  seq.;  Le  Temps,  March  9,  1881. 

398  "  Rapport  fait  au  nom  de  la  commission  d'enquete  parlementaire 
sur  les  conditions  du  travail  en  France "  in  the  Journal  officiel,  Nov. 
5-22,  1875,  pp.  9339,  9369,  9396,  9425,  9465,  9483,  9519,  9561. 

399 "  Rapport  fait  au  nom  de  la  commission  chargee  d'etudier  la 
situation  des  classes  ouvrieres  en  France,  par  M.  le  comte  de  Melun," 
Journal  officiel,  July  27,  1875,  pp.  6788-6792. 

400  Journal  officiel,  1874,  p.  3697,  et  seq.     For  the  debate,  see  Journal 
officiel,  1874,  P-  338i,  et  seq.    The  bill  was  pushed  through  by  Ambroise 
Joubert,    a   monarchist   and    capitalist,    and   is   usually   known   as    the 
Joubert  Bill. 

401  Journal  officiel,  Jan.  24,  1873,  p.  511. 

402  Ibid.,  1873,  pp.  911,  1008. 

403  Hanotaux,  Contemporary  France,  vol.  iii,  pp.  463,  471. 

404  Jean  E.  Laroche-Joubert  (1820-1884)   inherited  part  ownership  in 
a  paper  manufactory,  which  he  directed,  and  in  which  he  instituted  a 
system  of  profit-sharing.     After  the   fall  of  the  Empire,  his  political 
sympathies  were  with  the  Bonapartists.     He  held  a  seat  in  the  Chamber 
of   Deputies  from   1876  to   1884.     Cf.  Dictionnaire   des  parlemcntaires 
francais,  vol.  iii,  p.  598. 

405  Journal  officiel,  June  24,   1876,  p.  4476,   et  seq.    The  debate  was 
opened  on  June  23. 

406  Journal  officiel,  June  24,  1876,  p.  4476. 

407  Journal  officiel,  June  24,   1876,  p.  4477.     These  words  closed  the 
debate. 

408  Hanotaux,  Contemporary  France,  vol.  iv,  pp.  516-529,  540. 

409  L' Association  catholique,  vol.  ix,  p.  975. 

410  For  the  text  and  history  of  the  Bill  see  Scnat,  1881,  Documents, 
P-  733>  ^t  seq.;  cf.  Association  catholique,  1881.  vol.  xi,  p.  543,  et  seq. 

411  Chambre  des  deputes,  1881,  Debats,  pp.  667-668. 

412  It  is  not  to  be   inferred   that  all  Republicans   opposed  the  Bill. 
The  Bill  had  been  presented  by  Republicans  of  socialist  tendency  and 


432  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

was  ardently  defended  by  them.     Vide,  the  speech  by  Martin  Nadaud, 
ibid.,  p.  599,  et  seq.     But  Nadaud  represented  a  minority  opinion. 

413  Ibid.,  pp.  595-599- 

41*/&id.,  p.  611. 

415  Chambre  des  deputes,  1881,  Debats,  p.  677,  et  seq. 

416  Cf.  infra,  p.  no.     The  texts  will  be  found  in  Senat,  1881,  Docu- 
ments, p.  733,  et  seq.,  and  Chambre  des  deputes,  1881,  Debats,  p.  676. 

417  Vide,  Senat,  1881,  Documents,  p.  733,  el  seq.    The  Bill  was  not 
passed  by  the  Senate. 

418  Chambre  des  deputes,  1881,  Debats,  p.  677,  et  seq. 

419  Cf.  supra,  pp.  70-74. 

420  Breda,   "  La  Question   ouvriere   et  le   gouvernment  chretien,"   in 
L'Association  catholique,  1882,  vol  xiv,  p.  133,  et  seq. 

421  Ibid. 

422  The   passage   is  quoted    from   a   letter   written   by   Chambord   in 
1847.    Ibid. 

423  Ibid. 

424  Appel  aux  hommes  de  bonne  volontc,  issued  by  the  committee  for 
the  creation  of  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs,  in  December,  1871,  and 
reproduced  in  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  pp.  72-75. 

425  A.   de   Mun,  Ma   Vocation  sociale,  p.   no;   Discours,  vol.   i,   pp. 
21-32. 

426  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  194. 

427  A.  de  Mun,  Discours,  vol.  i,  p.  181. 

428  Count  de  Mun's  speech  at  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Associa- 
tion of  Catholic  Workingmen's  Clubs,  1878,  published  in  L'Association 
catholiquc,  vol.  v,  pp.  925-939;  see  especially  p.  930. 

429  A.  de  Mun,  speech  at  Chartres,  Sept.  8,   1878 ;   cf.  L'Association 
catholique,  vol.  vi,  pp.  624-633. 

430  Ibid. 

431  Ibid.,  Cf.  L'Association  catholique,  vol.  vi,  pp.  587-593. 

432  Ibid. 

433  Speech  at  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Association  of  C.  W.  C., 
May  4,  1879,  published  in  L'Association  catholique,  vol.  vii,  pp.  904- 
1009. 

434  Ibid. 

435  Ibid. 

436  j)e  Mun  conceived  that  the  aristocracy,  as  a  disinterested  third 
party,   should  be  the  "  negotiators   of  peace "  between   capitalists   and 
workingmen,  "  the  artisans  of  social  reconciliation."     Cf.  A.  de  Mun, 
Discours.  vol.  i,  p.  378. 

437  A.  de  Mun,  Discours,  vol.  i,  p.  378. 

438  Ibid. 

439  A.  de  Mun,  op.  cit.,  vol.  i.  p.  403. 

440  A  bill  to  legalize  syndicats  (unions  of  workingmen  or  employers 
in  the  same  branch  of  industry)  had  been  adopted  by  the  Chamber  of 
Deputies  in  June,   1881,  amended  by  the   Senate,  and  returned  to  the 
Chamber.     The  second  debate  in  the  Chamber,  beginning  June  12,  1883, 
is  the  one  referred  to.    Cf.  Journal  oMciel,  1880,  p.  11677;  Chambre 


APPENDIX  433 

des  deputes,  1881,  Documents,  p.  361 ;  Chambre  des  deputes,  1881,  Debats, 
pp.  516,  910,  917,  956,  972,  996,  1160,  1170;  Senat,  1882,  Debats,  pp.  688, 
706,  748,  et  seq.,  775  et  seq.,  790  et  seq.,  801  et  seq.,  847,  980,  et  seq.; 
Chambre  des  deputes,  1882,  Documents,  p.  2626;  Chambre  des  deputes, 
1883,  Debats,  pp.  513,  1276,  et  seq.,  1312,  et  seq.,  1330,  et  seq.,  1346,  et 
seq. 

*41June  12,  Chambre  des  deputes,  1883,  Debats,  p.  1277,  et  seq.     See 
also  his  second  speech,  June  19,  idem,  p.  1356,  et  seq. 

442  Chambre  des  deputes,  1883,  Debats,  p.  1283,  et  seq. 

443  Chambre  des  deputes,  1884,  Debats,  p.  33. 

444  Ibid.,  p.  190,  et  seq. 

445  Chambre  des  deputes,  1884,  Debats,  p.  2076. 

446  Ibid.,  p.  1388,  et  seq. 

447  Article  by  Grandmaison  in  £tudes,  vol.  141,  p.  42;  Saint-Pierre, 
Le  Comte  Albert  de  Mun,  pp.  47-50.    The  death  of  the  Legitimist  pre- 
tender in  1883  had  left  de  Mun  politically  stranded,  so  to  speak;  more- 
over, the   Catholic   successes  in  the   election  of    1885  had  encouraged 
him   to   hope  that   by   emulating  the    Belgian    Catholic   party  and  the 
German   Center  party,   the   French   clericals   might   stem  the   tide   of 
republican  anticlericalism. 

44S  By  repealing  the  divorce  law. 

449  By  revision  of  the  articles  in  the  Civil  Code  which  tended  to  the 
division  and,  consequently,  the  destruction  of  family  properties. 

450  Saint- Pierre,  loc.  cit.    This  program  represents  de  Mun's  idea  of 
the   social   legislation  which   Catholics  could  be   induced  to  advocate, 
at  that  time.     It  does  not  represent  the  maximum  development  of  his 
own  proposals.     In  fact,  the  Bills  presented  by  him  in  1886-1889  contain 
definitive  proposals  of  a  much  more  radical  nature.     Cf.  infra,  p.  in. 

451  Grandmaison,  loc.  cit.,  Saint-Pierre,  loc.  cit. 

452  Law  of  Sept.  9,   1848,  Cf.  R.  Fighiera,  La  Protection  legale  des 
travailleurs  en  France,   pp.   73-87;    P.    Pic,   La  Protection  legale   des 
traz-ailleurs  (Paris,  1909),  pp.  77-79. 

453  Chambre  des  deputes,  1886,  Documents,  p.  1073,  et  seq. 

454  Chambre  des  deputes,  1886,  Documents,  p.  1738. 

455  Chambre  des  deputes,  1886,  Documents,  p.  891,  et  seq. 

456  Bills   presented  June    16,    1887,   and   Dec.    7,    1889.     Chambre   des 
deputes,  1887,  Documents,  p.  903,  et  seq.,  and  1889,  Documents,  p.  273, 
ct  seq. 

457  Bill  presented  on  Dec.  7,  1889.     Chambre  des  deputes,  1889,  Ses- 
sion extraordinaire,  Documents,  p.  270,  et  seq. 

458  Chambre  des  deputes,  1889,  Documents,  p.  268,  et  seq. 

459  Chambre   des  deputes,   1889,  Session  extraordinaire,  Documents, 
p.  272. 

460  Chambre  des  deputes,  1889,  Debats,  p.  241,  et  seq. 

461  Chambre  des  deputes,  1891,  Debats,  pp.  129,  185,  208,  214,  215,  235. 

462  Reply    to    an    official    questionnaire    regarding    the    Val-des-Bois 
works,  ride  L' Association  catholique,  vol.  v,  p.  682,  et  seq. 

463  L' Association  catholique,  vol.  xvii,  p.  536,  et  seq. 

464  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  location  sociale,  p.  245. 


434  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

465  Manuel  d'une  corporation  chretienne  (Tours,  1876). 

466  Catechisme    du    patron:    elabore    avec    le    concours    d'un    grand 
nombre  de  theologiens;  edite  par  L.  Harmel  (Paris,  1889). 

467  The  following  description  of  the  Val-des-Bois  Guild  and  discus- 
sion of  its  principles  is  based  on  the  works  of  Harmel  already  cited, 
and  also  "  La  Democratic  dans  1'usine,"  in  La  Democratic  chretienne, 
1903;  Le  Val-des-bois:  situation  actuelle,  juin,  1895,   (Rheims,  1895); 
Fortnightly  Review,  Jan.  1896;  Calippe,  L' Attitude  sociale,  vol.  iii,  pp. 
I33~I43;  Nitti,  Catholic  Socialism,  pp.  291-299;  "  L'usine  du  Val-des- 
Bois  ;  Enquete  .  .  .  exposition  du  ministere  de  1'Interieure,"  a  reply  to 
a  questionnaire,   in  L'Association  catholique,  vol.  v,  p.  682,   et  seq.; 
Revue  de  I' Action  Populaire,  Jan.  10,  1914,  pp.  14-22,  Feb.  10,  pp.  121- 
130,  March  20,  pp.  210-217,  April  10,  pp.  263-270,  a  series  of  articles 
entitled  "  La  Famille  ouvriere  du  Val-des-Bois,"  by  J.  Dassonville. 

468  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  245. 

469  Manuel  d'une  corporation  chretienne  (Tours,  1876).     Cf.  L'Asso- 
ciation catholique,  vol.  iv,  p.  455. 

470  From   Harmel's   report   at  the   Bordeaux   congress, —  Association 
catholique,  vol.  ii,  p.  456.    In  the  Manual,  he  gave  a  shorter  definition 
of  the  guild  as  "  a  religious  and  economic  society  formed  freely  by  the 
heads  of  industrial  families  (employers  and  workingmen  of  the  same 
industrial  group  or  of  analogous  professions)  all  the  members  of  which 
are  grouped  in  various  pious  associations."    Manuel  d'une  corporation 
chretienne,  p.  193. 

471  L'Association  catholique,  vol.  iv,  p.  372,  et  seq. 

472  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  246. 

473  Reproduced  as  "  Annexe  XIII,"  pp.  308-309,  in  de  Mun,  op.  cit. 
For  evidence  that  this  was  not  a  purely  platonic  resolution,  -vide  Annee 
sociale  Internationale,  1913-1914,  p.  39,  et  seq. 

414  Cf.  supra,  p.  104. 

475  The  monthly  review,  L'Association  catholique,  which  served  as  an 
organ  for  the  group  of  Social  Catholic  leaders  interested  in  the  Asso- 
ciation, teemed  with  such  articles. 

476  This  is  not  to  say  that  von  Ketteler  was  the  first,  but,  rather, 
that  he  was  the  first  great  figure  in  the  German  Social  Catholic  move- 
ment.    Before  him,  Adolph  Kolping  (1813-1865),  a  priest  of  working- 
class  origin,  had  been  very  active  in   founding  Journeymen's  Unions 
(Gesellenvereine),  somewhat  similar  to  de  Mun's  Workingmen's  Clubs. 
At  the  time  of  Kolping's  death,  in  1865,  there  were  about  400  of  these 
unions.     Cf.  L'Association  catholique,  vol.  i,  pp.  402-406. 

477  On  von  Ketteler's  life  and  social  ideas,  consult  Pfiilf,  Bischof  -von 
Ketteler  (3  vols.,  Mainz,  1809)  ;  E.  de  Girard,  Ketteler  et  la  question 
ouvriere  (Berne,  1896)  ;  Goyau,  Ketteler  (Paris,  1907)  ;  J.  Lionnet,  Un 
fLveque  social,  Ketteler   (Paris,   1003)  ;   A.   Kannengieser,   Ketteler  et 
I' organisation  sociale  en  Allemagne  (Paris,  1894)  ;  John  J.  Laux  (Geo. 
Metlake,  pseud.),  Christian  Social  Reform:  program  outlined  by  its 
pioneer,    William   Emmanuel,   baron   von   Ketteler,   bishop    of  Mains 
(Philadelphia,    1912)  ;    Rev.    C.   D.    Plater,    Catholic   Social   Work   in 
Germany  (Herder,  1909). 


APPENDIX  435 

478  Max  Turmann,  Le  Developpement  du  catholicisme  social,  p.  4. 

479  This    is   von    Ketteler's    interpretation   of    the   Thomist   doctrine. 
The  sermons  were  published  under  the  title,  Die  grossen  socialen  Fragen 
der  Gegenwart  (Mainz,  1849)  ;  the  remarks  here  quoted  are  found  on 
pp.  12,  17,  25-26,  of  the  pamphlet. 

480  Despite  the  burden  of  his  duties  as  bishop  of  Mainz  (1850). 

481  Die  Arbeiterfrage  und  das  Christenthum. 

482  Ibid.,  (third  ed.,  Mainz,  1864),  pp.  28-29. 

483  Ibid.,  pp.  21-23,  and  appendix  ii,  p.  171,  et  seq. 

484  Ibid.,  pp.  15-20. 

485  Cf.  W.  H.  Dawson,   German  Socialism  and  Ferdinand  Lassalle 
(London,   1899),  P-   J36,  et  seq.    Four  lectures  by   Schulze-Delitzsch, 
bound  together  under  the  title  Die  Arbeit  (Leipzig,   1863),  afford  an 
interesting  expression  of  the  spirit  in  which  his  plan  was  conceived. 

486  w.   E.  von   Ketteler,  Die  Arbeiterfrage  und  das  Christenthum, 
p.  32,  et  seq. 

487  W.  H.  Dawson,  German  Socialism  and  Ferdinand  Lassalle  (Lon- 
don,  1899),  p.  205;   Ed.  Bernstein    (ed.),   Ferdinand  Lassalles  Reden 
und  Schriften   (Berlin,   1892),  vol.  i,  p.   131,  et  seq.,  and  vol.  Hi,  pp. 
1-261,  especially  pp.  221-238,  in  which  Lassalle  attacks  Schulze-Delitzsch. 

488  W.  E.  von  Ketteler,  op.  cit.,  pp.  62-87. 

489  Ibid.,  p.  138,  et  seq. 

490  G.  Goyau,  L'Allemagne  religieuse:  le  catholicisme   (Paris,  1909), 
vol.  iii,  p.  135,  et  seq. 

491  W.  E.  von  Ketteler,  Die  Arbeiterbewegung  und  ihr  Streben  im 
Verhdltniss  zu  Religion  und  Sittlichkeit,  a  speech  delivered  on  July  25, 
1869,  (second  ed.,  Mainz,  1869). 

492  G.  Goyau,  Ketteler,  pp.  226-237 ;  Kannengieser,  Ketteler,  pp.  66-67. 

493  \y  E.  von  Ketteler,  Die  Katholiken  im  Deutschen  Reiche;  Entwurf 
zu  einem  politischen  Programm  (Mainz,  1873). 

49*Ibid.,  pp.  79-80. 

495  Ibid.,  p.  80,  et  seq. 

496  Ibid.,  pp.  8,  86,  et  seq. 

497  Franz  Christoph  Ignaz  Moufang  (1817-1890).     See  his  biography 
in  Allgemeine  deutsche  Biographie,  liii,  486-8. 

498  Moufang  proposed  that  the  state  should  institute  a  commission 
of  magistrates  and  workingmen  to  fix  a  just  wage  for  each  category  of 
labor,  and  to  enforce  its  decisions.     Cf.  Nitti,  Catholic  Socialism,  p.  142". 

499  Christlich-Sociale  Blatter,  March,  1871. 

500  Franz     Hitze     (1851 — ).     Vide    Deutsches    Zeitgenossentexikon 
(Leipzig,  1905),  p.  615. 

501  Die  Sociale  Frage  und  die  Besftrebungen  zu  ihrer  Losung  (Pader- 
born,  1877)  ;  Kapital  und  Arbeit  und  die  Reorganisation  der  Gesellschaft 
(Paderborn,   1880)  ;   Die   Quintessenz  der  Socialen  Frage    (pamphlet, 
Paderborn,    written    in    1880)  ;    Schutz    dem   Handwerke    (Paderborn, 
1883)  ;  Pnichten  und  Aufgaben  der  Arbeitgeber  in  der  Arbeiterfrage 
(Cologne,  1888)  ;  Schutz  dem  Arbeiter  (Cologne,  1890)  ;  Die  Arbeiter- 
frage  und  die  Bestrebungen  zu   ihrer  Losung    (Berlin,    1899)  ;    Zur 
Wiirdigung  der  deutschen  Arbeiter-So&ialpolitik    (Munchen-Gladbach, 


436  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

1913)  ;  besides  many  articles  in  Arbeiterwohl,  L' Association  catholique, 
Christlich-Sociale  Blatter,  and  other  Social  Catholic  periodical  pub- 
lications, and  "  Die  Arbeiter-Sozialpolitik,"  in  Deutschland  unter  Kaiser 
Wilhelm  11  (Berlin,  1914). 

502  Franz  Hitze,  Capital  et  travail  et  la  reorganisation  de  la  societe 
(an  enlarged  edition  of  Die  Sociale  Frage,  in  French,  Louvain,  1898), 
ch.  ii,  and  p.  37. 

503  Ibid.,  p.  ix. 

504  Ibid.,  ch.  i,  v,  vi,  vii. 

505  Ibid.,  p.  409. 

506  Ibid.,  ch.  x-xv. 

507  Ibid. 
™*Ibid.,  p.  417. 

509  Cf.  Hitze's  three  bills  of  March  5,  1887,  to  amend  the  Gewerbeord- 
nung  or  factory  code,  in  Stenographische  Berichte  uber  die  Verhand- 
lungen  des  Reichstages,  VII  Legislaturperiode,  I  Session  1887,  Dritter 
Band,  Erster  Anlageband,  Nr.  21,  pp.  281-282,  Nr.  22,  pp.  282-284, 
Nr.  23,  pp.  284-285,  and  his  speeches  on  these  bills,  March  16,  June  8, 
June    14,    1887,    in   Stenographische   Berichte,    VII   Legislaturperiode, 
I  Session  1887,  Erster  Band,  pp.   127-130,  780-783,  964,  966.    Also,  a 
bill   presented    on    Nov.    25,    1887,    by   Hitze   and   other   deputies,    in 
Stenographische    Berichte^    VII    Legislaturperiode,    II    Session    1887- 
1888,  Dritter  Band,  Erster  Anlageband,  Akt,enstuck  Nr.  21,  pp.  148-150, 
and  discussion,  in  Erster  Band,  pp.  477,  1182,  1184,  1192,  1193.    Also,  a 
bill  by  Lieber  and  Hitze,  in  op.\  cit.,  Dritter  Band,  Erster  Anlageband, 
Nr.  54,  pp.  295-296,  with  discussion,  Erster  Band,  pp.  905,  1245,  1253, 
1356.    Also,  Hitze's  emphatic  speech  of  May  20,  1890,  favoring  the  legal 
enforcement  of  Sunday,  the  progressive  diminution  of  the  working- 
day,  restriction  of  woman-labor,  and  the  legal  organization  of  labor, 
Stenographische  Berichte,  VIII  Legislaturperiode,  I  Session  1800-1891, 
Erster  Band,  pp.   179-185.     In  the  last-mentioned  speech  he  proposed 
the  legal  institution  of  a  form  of  labor  organization  resembling  the 
"  shop  committee  "  so  much  discussed  at  present. 

510  On   Nov.  20,   1884,  to   cite  one  instance,   Freiherr  von  Hertling 
with  several  of  his  colleagues  and  a  large  number  of  supporters  or 
seconders,   introduced  a  resolution  to  the   following  effect :  — "  Be  it 
resolved   by   the   Reichstag:    that   the   federated   governments   be   re- 
quested to  lay  before  the  Reichstag,  if  possible  in  this  session,  a  bill 
relative  to  the  further  development  of  the  legislation  for  the  protection 
of  the  laborer,  in  which   (i)   work  on  Sundays  and  holidays  shall  be 
forbidden,   subject  to   special  exceptions  to  be  precisely  defined,    (2) 
child-labor  and  woman-labor  in  factories  shall  be  restricted,    (3)    the 
maximum  working-day   for  adult  male   workers   shall   be   regulated." 
Stenographische  Berichte,   VI  Legislaturperiode,  I  Session  1884-1885, 
Fiinfter  Band,  p.  80. 

511 F.  Salomon,  Die  deutschen  Parteiprogramme  (Leipzig,  1912, 
second  ed.),  vol.  ii,  pp.  23,  38-45.  Cf.  also  Wenzel,  Arbeiterschutz  und 
Centrum. 

512  Alphonse  Thun,  in  Die  Industrie  am  Niederrhein  uwd  ihre  Ar- 


APPENDIX  437 

belter,  Erster  Theil:  die  linksrheinische  Textilindustrie  (Leipzig,  1879), 
pp.  197-198,  gives  interesting  testimony  to  this  effect :  "  with  the  Kultur- 
kampf,  a  new  principle  appeared  in  the  formation  of  parties :  the  weav- 
ers of  Rhenish  Prussia  had  to  take  a  position  on  a  question  toward 
which  they  had  hitherto  been  neutral.  The  social  conflict  between 
manufacturers  and  laborers  subsisted;  to  it  was  joined  a  new  conflict, 
between  clericals  and  liberals.  The  liberal  party  appeared  as  the 
organization  of  manufacturers  and  anticlericals,  the  Center  party  as  the 
organization  of  workingmen  and  clergy.  More  than  ever  the  clergy, 
hostile  to  the  liberal  manufacturers,  were  thrown  back  upon  the  people. 
The  weavers  are  the  adepts  of  ultramontanism  less  because  it  is  a 
religious  party  than  because  it  has  become  a  social  party." 

For  this  illuminating  quotation  I  am  indebted  to  the  excellent  chap- 
ter on  the  social  movement  among  German  Catholics,  in  G.  Goyau, 
L'Allemagne  religieuse:  le  catholicisme,  vol.  iii  (Paris,  1909),  chapter  ii, 
pp.  85-169. 

513  V.  Brants,  "  La  Reglementation  du  travail  industriel  en  Austriche," 
in  La  Reforme  sociale,  2nd  series,  vol.  vii,  1889,  pp.  165-175 ;  cf.  L' Asso- 
ciation catholique,  vol.  xv,  p.  468,  vol.  xvi,  pp.  233-234,  vol.  xviii,  pp. 
662-669. 

514  His   program   is   set   forth   in   an   article   entitled,   "  La   Reforme 
sociale  et  le  programme  antisemitique,"  in  L' Association  catholique,  vol. 
xxxii,  pp.   164-173,  199-207 ;  cf.  de  Breda,  "Le  Prince  de  Lichtenstein 
et  la  question  sociale,"  in  L' Association  catholique,  vol.  vi,  pp.  238-250, 
402-416,  and  La  Reforme  sociale,  2nd  series,  vol.  vii,  p.  226. 

515  See  Vogelsang's  articles  in  Monatsschrift  fur  christliche  Social- 
Reform:  on  interest  and  usury,  May,  1884,  pp.  233-258;  June,  pp.  321- 
342;  July,  pp.  345-350;  Aug.,  pp.  419-432;  Sept.,  pp.  457-480;  on  sick- 
ness-insurance for  workingmen,  Nov.,  1884,  pp.  602-612,  Dec.,  656-661 ; 
on    the    organization    of    industry,    April-May,    1886,    pp.    188-196;    on 
state-action,  in  reply  to  Michael  Fliirscheim,  Aug.,   1887,  pp.  405-411; 
on  the  basis  of  social  reform,  vol.  xi,  pp.  617-623 ;  etc .    He  contributed 
to  the  French  Social  Catholic  review,  L' Association  catholique   (q.  v. 
for  May,  1888). 

516  Dr.    Rudolph   Meyer,   Politische   Grilnde   und   die    Corruption  in 
Dcutschland   (Leipzig,  1877). 

517  He  was  subsequently  compelled  to  make  a  second  migration,  this 
time  because  of  an  attack  on  the  Austrian  premier.     Leading  Vienna, 
he  went  to  Paris,  where  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  French  Social 
Catholic  leaders  and  became  a  contributor  to  their  review,  L' Association 
catholique. 

518  Dr.     Rudolph     Meyer.     Der    Emancipationskampf     dcs     vierten 
Standes  (second  ed..  Berlin,  1882)  ;  Ursachen  der  Amerikanischen  Con- 
current  (Berlin,   1883)  ;  Heimst'dtten  und  andere   Wirthschaftsgcsctzc 
der   Vereinigten   Staten  von  Amerika,  von   Canada,   Russland,   China. 
Indien,   Rumanien,    Serbien,    und    England    (Berlin,    1883).     Cf.    "Le 
Socialisme  d'etat  en   Autriche,"  in  L'Association  catholique,  vol.   xvi, 
pp.  200-222 ;  La  Tour  du  Pin,  "  fitude  de  legislation  sociale,"  in  same 
review,  vol.  xvi,  pp.  464-485. 


438  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

519  L' 'Association  catholique,  vol.  xiii,  pp.  383-386,  783-786,  vol.  xv, 
pp.  419-436,  461-467 ;  Prince  A.  von  Lichtenstein,  "  La  Reforme  sociale 
et  le  programme  antisemitique,"  in  sarrie  review,  vol.  xxxii,  pp.  164-173, 
199-207 ;    V.    Brants,    "  La    Reglementation   du    travail    industriel    en 
Autriche,"  in  La  Ref  orme  sociale,  1889,  2nd  series,  vol.  vii,  pp.  165-175; 
Dr.    Kaempfe,    "  Le    Mouvement    antisemitique    en    Autriche,"    in   La 
Reforme  sociale,  2nd  series,  vol.  vi,  pp.  567-577. 

520  The  clergy  also  bore  an  important  part  in  the  movement;  witness 
the   work   of    Father    Weiss,    Father    Kolb,    Mgr.    Schleicher,    Father 
Eichorn,  and  others. 

521  Stauracz,  Dr.  Lueger's  Leben  und  Wirken   (Klagenfurt)  ;  idem., 
Dr.  Karl  Lueger,  Zehn  Jahre  Bilrgermeister   (Vienna,   1907)  ;   cf.  Le 
Mouvement  social,   April,    1910,   p.   339,   et  seq.;  Dr.   Kaempfe,   "  Les 
Resultats   du   socialisms   chretien  en   Autriche,"   La  Reforme   sociale, 
1891,  3d.  series,  vol.  i,  p.  471. 

522  Gaspard   Mermillod    (1824-1892),   ordained   bishop,   in    1864,   and 
appointed  cardinal  in  1890.     Cf.  Jeantet,  Le  Cardinal  Mermillod. 

523  Quoted  by  Nitti,  Catholic  Socialism,  pp.  237-238. 

524  Ibid.,  p.  241,  et  seq. 

525  Ibid. 

526  For  this  initiative  he  was  praised  by  Leo  XIII, —  cf.  Civilta  Catt- 
olica,  March  i,  1890,  and  T  'Serclacs,  Le  Pope  Leon  XIII   (2  vols., 
Paris  and  Lille,  1894),  ii,  pp.  56-58.     The  proposition  was  taken  up  by 
the  Swiss  Government,  but  Wilhelm  II  intervened  and  brought  the  con- 
ference to  Berlin, —  cf.  La  Reforme  sociale,  1890,  2nd  series,  vol.  ix, 
pp.  89-98,  145-154- 

527  Gaspard  Decurtins,  Les  Catholiques  et  la  question  sociale   (Fri- 
bourg,  1890). 

528  Cf.    L' Association    catholique,    May,    1890,    pp.    615,    617;    Revue 
d' economic  politique,  May-June,  1890,  pp.  315,  316;  La  Reforme  sociale, 
1890,    2nd    series,    vol.    ix,    pp.    572-579;    Le    Temps,    April    n,    1890; 
L'Economiste  franqais,  April  26,  1890. 

529  Huet  was  French  by  nationality,  but  is  usually  classed  as  a  Bel- 
gian because  he  was  a  professor  in  the  Belgian  university  of  Ghent. 
Gide  and  Rist,  Histoire  des  doctrines  cconomiqucs,  p.  581.     Cf.  Nitti, 
Catholic    Socialism],    p.    301,    et    seq.;    fible,    Les    Ecoles    catholiques 
d'economie,  p.  31,  et  seq.;  Laveleye,  Le  Socialisme  contemporain,  pp. 
236-239. 

530  M.  Gide,  in  Gide  and  Rist.  Histoire  des  doctrines  economiques, 
P.  582. 

531  Frangois  Huet,  Le  Regne  social  du  christianisme    (Paris,  1853). 
Huet,  says  M.  Gide,  was  the  first  to  use  the  term  socialisme  chretien. 

532  «  The  Gospel  does  not  recognize  its  social  expression  in  the  mid- 
dle ages,  that  terrible  dictatorship  corresponding  to  the  barbarity  of 
the  period,  the  iron  age  of  the  church,  the  long  '93  of  religion.     Born 
in  pains,  in  the  midst  of  a  regime  of  blood,  the  true  Christian  society 
of  which  the  communes  were  the  cradle  did  not  take  possession  of  the 
stage  of  the  world  until   1789." — Frangois  Huet,  Le  Rcgne  social  du 
christianisme,  p.  4. 


APPENDIX  439 

533  Huet,  op.  cit.,  passim. 

534  Charles  Perin,  Le  Socialisme  chretien,  p.  48. 

535  Perin's  theories  have  been  discussed  more  fully  on  another  page, 
cf.  supra,  pp.  62-65. 

036  Bechaux,  La  Politique  sociale  en  Belgique  (Paris,  1887)  ;  Nitti, 
Catholic  Socialism,  p.  304;  V.  Brants,  "  Les  nouvelles  lois  sociales  en 
Belgique,"  in  La  Reforme  sociale,  2nd  series,  vol.  v,  pp.  198-203 ;  cf.  also 
the  excellent  summary  of  Belgian  social  legislation  to  1890  in  the  same 
review,  1890,  2nd  series,  vol.  x,  pp.  385-403,  439-452. 

537  Henry  Edward  Manning  (1808-1892).     Among  many  biographical 
studies,  the  following  throw  most  light  on  his  social  work:     J.  Lemire, 
Le  Cardinal  Manning  et  son  action  sociale    (Paris,  1893),  a  very  in- 
teresting   study  by   a    French    Christian    Democrat ;    F.    de    Pressense, 
Le  Cardinal  Manning  (Paris,  1896)  ;  I.  A.  Taylor,  The  Cardinal  Demo- 
crat, Henry  Edward  Manning   (London,   1908).     W.  H.  Kent,  author 
of  the  article  on  "  Manning,   Henry  Edward "  in  the  Catholic  Ency- 
clopedia, has  under  preparation  a  definitive  biography. 

538  The  lecture  was  published  in  pamphlet  form,  as  The  Rights  and 
Dignity  of  Labor  (London,  1887). 

539  See  especially  his  article  in  the  Dublin  Revieiv,  1891,  vol.  109,  pp. 

I53-I67. 

540  Sidney  Buxton,  "  Cardinal  Manning,  a  Reminiscence,"  Fortnightly, 
1896,  vol.  65,  pp.  576-594 ;  La  Reforme  sociale,  1889,  vol.  viii,  pp.  603- 
609. 

541  Dublin  Review,  1891,  vol.  109,  pp.  153-167 ;  La  Reforme  sociale, 
2nd  series,  vol.  x,  p.  536;   Nitti,   Catholic  Socialism,  p.  319;    Spuller, 
L' Evolution  politique  et  social  de  I'eglise,  p.  97. 

542  Spuller,  op.  cit.,  p.  98. 

543  Mgr.  E.  G.  Bagshawe,  Mercy  and  Justice  to  the  Poor,  the  True 
Political  Economy    (London,    1885)  ;    Pere    de    Pascal,    "  Monseigneur 
Bagshawe,   eveque   de   Nottingham,"   in   L' Association   catholique,   vol. 
xxv,  p.  109,  et  scq.;  also,  L'Assocation  catholique,  vol.  xviii,  pp.  61-71, 
and  vol.  xvii,  p.  442. 

544  Cf.  Nitti,  Catholic  Socialism,  pp.  348-357;  J.  Cazajeux,  "La  Ques- 
tion sociale  en  Espagne,"  La  Reforme  sociale,  1891,  3d  series,  vol.  i, 
pp.  85-90;  Turmann,  Le  Developpement  du  catholicisme  social,  passim. 

545  The  French  Social  Catholic  review,  L'Association  catholique,  had 
an  article  on  "Les  Chevaliers  du  travail"  before  the  decision,  in  vol. 
xxii,  p.  703,  et  seq.;  it  printed  Cardinal  Gibbons'  memorandum,  in  vol. 
xxiii,  p.  488,  et  seq.,  and  Cardinal  Manning's  letter,  vol.  xxiii,  p.  505, 
et  seq.,  and  published  another  article  on   "  Les   Chevaliers  du   travail 
et  le  Saint-Siege,"  in  vol.  xxvi,  p.  729,  et  seq.     Cf.  also  an  anticlerical's 
comment  in  Spuller,  L'Evolution  politique  ct  sociale  de  I'eglise,  p.  97. 

546  Cf.  supra,  p.  81. 

547  For  example,  in  L'Association  catholique,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  253-273. 

548  L'Association  catholique,  vol.  xiii,  p.  301,  et  scq. 

549  L'Association  catholique,  vol.  xii,  pp.  621-646,  744-766;  vol.  xiii, 
pp.  52-68;  vol.  xvi,  pp.  209-222,  322-338,  565-585;  vol.   xvii,  pp.  334- 
348,  467-481. 


440  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

550  Cf.  infra,  pp.  153-154. 

551  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  location  sociale,  p.  118. 

552  Cf.  L' Association  catholique,  vol.  xi,  pp.  247,  266-270. 

553  Calippe,    L' Attitude    sociale    des    catholiques,    vol.    iii,    pp.    251- 
252,  312-316;  Semaine  sociale  de  Rouen,  1910,  p.  69,  et  seq. 

554  Cf,  infra,  pp.  157-165. 

556  Cf.  supra,  pp.  58-65. 

557  £ble,    Les   ficoles    catholiques   d' economic,   ch.    iii;    F.   Le    Play, 
"  L'Ecole  de  la  paix  sociale,  son  developpement  et  son  avenir,"  in  La 
Reforme  sociale,  1882,  vol.  iii,  pp.   145-150;   Delaire,  "Les  Doctrines 
sociales  de  Le  Play  et  de  son  ecole,"  in  same  review,  vol.  viii,  pp.  496- 
501. 

558  Claudio    Jannet,    "  L'Intervention    de    1'etat    dans    le    regime    du 
travail,"  in  Revue  cath.  des  inst.,  Jan.,  1885;  H.  Dubreuil,  "La  Liberte 
du  travail  au  congres  des  jurisconsultes,"  La  Reforme  sociale,  1885,  vol. 
ix,  pp.   181-183 ;  Jannet,  "  Les  Syndicats  professionels  et  la  loi  du  21 
mars  1884,"  in  same  review,  vol.  x,  pp.  289-319. 

559  L' Association  catholique,  vol.  i,  pp.  9-41. 

560  Ibid.,,  vol.  xiv,  p.  257. 

561  Ibid.,  vol.  xiii,  p.  559,  et  seq. 

5G2  \Veill,  Histoire  du  mouvement  social  en  France,  p.  184. 

563  A.  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  123 ;  Grandmaison,  "  Le  Comte 
Albert  de  Mun,"  in  Etudes,  vol.   141,  p.  32. 

564  Vol.  xi,  p.  247,  et  seq.,  vol.  xv,  p.  294,  et  seq.,  cf.  vol.  vii,  appendix, 
PP.  1-52. 

565  Ibid. 

506  Cf.  "  Rapport  et  avis  No.  VII "  and  "  Rapport  et  avis  No.  VIII " 
printed  in  extenso  in  L'Association  catholique,  vol.  xi,  pp.  387-412, 
548-574,  and  vol.  xiii,  pp.  511-555.  "Avis  No.  VII"  was  adopted  by 
the  general  committee  of  the  Association  of  Catholic  Workingmen's 
Clubs  on  Feb.  23,  1881 ;  "  Avis  No.  VIII "  on  March  i,  1882. 

567  L'Association   catholique,  vol.   xiii,   "  D'ou  nous  venons,"  p.    122, 
et  seq.,  "  Ou  nous  en  sommes,"  p.  244,  et  seq.,  "  Ou  nous  allons,"  p.  347, 
et  seq. 

568  L'Association  catholique,  vol.  xiv,  pp.  253-273,  Sept.,  1882. 
sea  Ibid. 

570  L'Association  catholique,  vol.  xvii,  p.  I,  et  seq.,  Jan.,  1884. 

571  La  Reforme  sociale,  2nd  series,  vol.  ix,  p.  592 ;  L  Association  cath- 
olique, Nov.  15,  1889,  p.  591. 

572  De  Segur-Lamoignon  in  L'Association  catholique,  Nov.,   1889,  p. 

591. 

573  Cf.   La  Science  sociale    (1886 — );   La   Reforme   sociale,   vol.   xi 
(1886),  pp.  1-2;  vol.  x,  p.  418;  Journal  des  economistes,  1886,  4th  series, 
vol.  xxxiii,  pp.  236-237;   fible,  Les  fccoles  catholiques  d' economic,  pp. 
181,  234. 

574  Alfred  Renouard,  in  La  Reforme  sociale,  vol.  xii,  pp.  236-239. 

575  H.   de  Moly,   "  La    Reglementation   du   travail   en   France   et   les 
catholiques,"  in  La  Reforme  sociale,  May  16,  1890,  2nd  series,  vol.  ix, 
pp.  585-606. 


APPENDIX  441 

576  Supra,  p.  no. 

577  Charles  Perin,  "  Ni  liberaux,  ni  socialistes,"  in  Revue  catholique 
des  institutions  et  du  droit,  2nd  series,  vol.  v,  pp.  463-470;  cf.  La  Re- 
forme  sociale,  2nd  series,  vol.  x,  p.  675. 

578  Raoul  du  Sart  in  La  Reforme  sociale,  2nd  series,  vol.  iv,  p.  507. 

579  La  Reforme  sociale,  2nd  series,  vol.  ii,  pp.  326-327,  584-592. 

580  Ibid.,  2nd  series,  vol.  iv,  pp.  507-513. 

581  Ibid. 

582  J.   Cazajeux,  "  Le   Socialisme  chretien  aux  congres  de  Liege  et 
d'Angers,"  in  La  Reforme  sociale,  Nov.   i,   1890,  2nd   series,  vol.  x, 
PP-  533-547. 

583  Ibid.,   and   Revue    catholique   des  institutions   et   du   droit,   2nd 
series,  vol.  v,  pp.  53O-543- 

584  La  Reforme  sociale,  2nd  series,  vol.  ix,  pp.  585-606,  vol.  x,  p.  545, 
and  Revue  cath.  des  inst.,  2nd  series,  vol.  v,  pp.  415-427. 

585  Revue  cath.  des  inst.  et  du  droit,  2nd  sen,  vol.  v,  pp.  385-414;  cf. 
Spuller,  L' Evolution  politique  et  sociale  de  I'eglise,  pp.  149-150;  Revue 
d'economie  politique,  1891,  vol.  v,  p.  87. 

586  £ble,  Les  £coles  cath.  d'economie,  p.  100. 

587  H.  de  Lestelly,  "  Proces-verbal  general  du  congres  tenu  a  Angers 
par  les  jurisconsultes  catholiques,"  Revue  cath.   des  inst.,  2nd   series, 
vol.  v,  pp.  385-414 ;  Mgr.  Freppel,  "  La  Question  ouvriere  et  le  social- 
isme  chretien,"  ibid.,  pp.  415-427;  G.  Thery,  "Rapport  sur  le  socialisme 
d'etat,"  ibid.,  pp.  428-463 ;  A.  Onclair,  "  Rapport  sur  le  socialisme  con- 
temporain,"  ibid.,  pp.  481-510;  A.  Gibon,  "Les  Accidents  du  travail," 
ibid.,  2nd  series,  vol.  vi,  pp.  126-153. 

588  Spuller,  L'Evolution  politique  et  sociale  de  I'eglise,  pp.  153-158. 

589  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  in  L' Association  catholique,  Jan.  15,  1891, 
vol.  xxi,  pp.  3-33. 

590£ble,    op.    cit.,   p.    193. 

591  Gioacchino  Pecci  (1810-1903),  son  of  Count  Lodovico  Pecci.    On 
his   character  and  life,  consult   Mgr.   Charles   de  T'Serclaes,  Le  Pope 
Leon  XIII    (Paris,    1892)  ;   Justin   McCarthy,   Pope  Leo   XIII    (Lon- 
don,    1806)  ;   R.     H.     Clarke,     The     Life     of     His     Holiness     Pope 
Leo     XIII     (Phila.,     1903)  ;     Martin     Spahn,     Leo     XIII     (Munich, 
1905)  ;    Boyer    d'Agen,    La   Prclature    de    Leon    XIII    (Paris.    1900)  ; 
Lecanuet.  L'Eglise  de  France,  vol.  ii.  Pontifical  de  Leon  XIII  (Paris, 
1910);  F.  Nitti,  Catholic  Socialism,  ch.  xii;  Rev.  J.  J.  Wynne   (ed.), 
The  Great  Encyclicals  of  Leo  XIII  (N.  Y.,  1902). 

592  Cf.  supra,  pp.  121-125. 

593  L'Eglise  et  la   Civilisation,  par  S.  Em.   le   cardinal  Pecci,  arch- 
eveque  de  Perouse  .  .  .  traduit  de   I'italien  par  Paul  Lapeyre   (Paris. 
1878)  :   quoted  by  Max  Turmann,  Le  Developpement  du   catholicisme 
social  depuis  I'encyclique  "  Rerum  Noz'arum"  (2nd  ed.,   Paris,  1009), 
p.  23. 

594  A  eta  sanctae  sedis,   (Rome),  vol   xi,  p.  369,   et  seq. 
595Acta  sanctae  sedis,  vol.  xii,  p.  07,  et  seq. 

598  Acta  sanctae  sedis,  vol.  xi,  pp.  369  et  seq.    English  translation,  in 


442  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

The  Pope  and  the  People   (London,  1912)   pp.  28-40;   Nitti,  Catholic 
Socialism,  pp.  365-370. 

597  Cf.  supra,  p.   122. 

598  Cf.  supra,  pp.  141-145. 

599  On  the  general  development  of  Social  Catholicism  prior  to  1891, 
see  Nitti,  Catholic  Socialism. 

600  Turmann,  Le  Developpement  du  catholicisme  social,  p.  10;  Leon 
Gregoire,  Le  Pape,  les  Catholiques  et  la  Question  sociale  (Paris,  1899, 
3rd  ed.),  p.  26,  et  seq.    There  is  also  a  pamphlet  entitled   Union  de 
Fribourg    (Paris,   1893),  setting  forth  the  work  of  the  Union. 

601  Association   catholique,   May    15,   June   15,    1887;    Leon   Gregoire, 
op.  cit.,  p.  48,  et  seq.;  Justin  McCarthy,  Pope  Leo  XIII  (2nd  ed.,  N.  Y., 
1899),  pp.  152-156. 

602  Turmann,  Le  Developpement  du  catholicisme  social,  p.   184 ;   E. 
Spuller,  L'Evolution  politique  et  sociale  de  I'eglise,  pp.  163-184. 

603  Turmann,  op.  cit.,  p.   185 ;   Spuller,   loc.  cit.    In   Catholic  Social 
Guild  Pamphlets,  No.  3,  Mgr.  Parkinson  asserts  that  100  employers, 
1,400  workmen,  and  300  priests  participated  in  the  pilgrimage.     Spuller 
states  that  there  were  1,200  workingmen. 

604  Turmann,  op.  cit.,  pp.  186-188;  Spuller,  loc.  cit. 

605  Francesco   S.    Nitti,   Studi  sul  socialisms   contemporaneo :  II  so- 
cialismo  cattolico   (Turin,  1890). 

606  A  eta  sanctce  sedis,  vol.  xxiii,  p.  641,  et  seq.    Citations  are  from 
the  Official  English  Translation,  "  The  Condition  of  Labor,"  published 
in  pamphlet  form  by  the  International  Catholic  Truth  Society.     Ana- 
tole  Leroy-Beaulieu,  G.  Goyau,  G.  de  Pascal,  and  Max  Turmann  will 
be    found   among   the  most   interesting   of   the    Encyclical's   numerous 
commentators.    Justin  McCarthy,  Pope  Leo  XIII,  pp.  169-181,  gives  a 
summary  of  contemporary  comments.     An  English  translation  may  be 
found  in  Rev.  J.  J.  Wynne  (ed.),  The  Great  Encyclicals  of  Leo  XIII 
(N.  Y.,  1002). 

607  Dabry,  Lcs  Catholiques  republicans,  p.   165,  writes  "  Le  15  mai 
1891  eclata  comme  un  coup  de  tonnerre  I'Encyclique  Rerum  novarum  " ; 
the  statement  is  somewhat  surprising  in  the  light  of  the   facts   men- 
tioned by  the  same  author,  pp.  158-164.     Among  the  utterances  fore- 
shadowing Rerum  Novarum  may  be  mentioned,  besides  the  documents 
adverted  to  in  the  text,  the  address  "  C'est  avec  une  particuliere  satis- 
faction "  with  which  Leo  XIII  encouraged  the  Catholic  Workingmen's 
Clubs  of  France   (February  24,   1885,   The  Pope  and  the  People,  pp. 
67-70)  ;  the  reply  to  Cardinal  Langenieux's  address,  October  20,   1889 
(see  Nitti,  Catholic  Socialism,  pp.  401-403)  ;  and  the  letter  written  in 
1800  to   William   II,   on   the   occasion   of  the   International   Congress 
for  Social  Legislation  (cf.  McCarthy,  Pope  Leo  XIII,  pp.  157-160). 

608  Despite  the  length  of  Rerum  Novarum,  certain  of  the  declara- 
tions, and  still  more  the  omissions,  of  the  Encyclical  gave  rise  to  con- 
troversy.    Leo  XIII,  therefore,  and  his  successors  Pius  X  and  Bene- 
dict XV,  found  it  necessary  at  frequent  intervals  to  write  more  pre- 
cise explanations,  new  exhortations,  and  more  than  one  rebuke. 


APPENDIX  443 

utterances,  compiled   from   encyclical   letters,   instructions  and   allocu- 
tions, would  constitute  a  lengthy  treatise  on  the  social  question. 

609  The  Condition  of  Labour,  p.  12. 

610  Ibid.,  pp.  2-3. 

611  Ibid.,  p.  3. 

612  Ibid.,  pp.  3-9,  ii. 

613  The  first  nine  pages  are  directed  against  Socialism;  the  remain- 
ing thirty-two  are  devoted  to  what  the  pope  considered  to  be  the  true 
solutions. 

614  Ibid.,  pp.  20,  22-23,  25,  39-40,  15,  9. 

615  Ibid.,  pp.  21,  23,  24,  25. 
Gir>Ibid.,  p.  20. 

617  Ibid.,  pp.  30-37. 

618  Ibid.,  pp.  25-37. 

619  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  republicans,  pp.  50-51 :  supra,  p.  107. 
620Tournier,  Le  Cardinal  Lavigerie  (Paris,  1913),  pp.  277,  338. 
fi21  Dabry,  op.  cit.,  pp.  54-59. 

622  Ibid.,  pp.   71-72. 

623  Spuller,  L'£volution  politique  et  sociale  de  I'eglise  (Paris,  1893), 
PP.  67-73. 

624  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  republicans,  pp.  72,  91-92. 

625  Annee  politique,  1890,  p.  15,  et  seq. 

626  Journal  oMciel,  July  17,  1889,  p.  3437,  et  seq. 

627  Annee  politique,  1889,  pp.   197-198. 

628  j    Tournier,  Le  cardinal  Lavigerie  et  son  action  politique  d'apres 
les  documents  nouveaux  et  inedits   (Thesis,  Paris,   1913)  ;   Mgr.  Bau- 
nard,    Le   Cardinal   Lavigerie    (Paris,    1896)  ;    Vicomte    de    Colleville, 
Le    Cardinal   Lavigerie    (4th   ed.,    Paris,    1912)  ;    Jules    Delacroix,    La 
Declaration  du  cardinal  Lavigerie,  le  clerge  frangais  et  les  partis  po- 
litiques   (Saint-Amand,   1891)  ;  Du  Toast  a  I' ency clique   (Paris,   1892), 
published  anonymously  but  written  by  Goyau  and  Brunhes. 

629  In  his   Encyclical  Iminortale  Dei,  November   i,   1885,   Leo  XIII 
had  written,  "  no  one  of  the  several  forms  of  government  is  in  itself 
condemned,  inasmuch  as  none  of  them  contains  anything  contrary  to 
Catholic   doctrine  and  all   of  them   are  capable,   if   wisely  and   justly 
managed,   to    insure   the   welfare   of   the    state."    The    pope   explicitly 
stated  that  political  democracy  was  not  only  permissible  but  might  be 
of  benefit  and  of  obligation  in  some  cases. —  The  Pope  and  the  People, 
p.  92;  Acta  sanctae  sedis,  vol.  xviii,  p.  161,  et  seq.     Again,  in  Sapientiae 
Christianae,  January    10,    1890,   Leo  XIII   declared   that   "the   Church 
.  .  .  holds  that  it  is  not  her  province  to  decide  which  is  the  best  amongst 
many  diverse  forms  of  government  and  the  civil  institutions  of  Chris- 
tian States,  and  among  the  different  systems  of  government  she  disap- 
proves  none,   provided   that   religion    and   the    Christian    discipline   of 
morals  be  respected." —  The  Pope  and  the  People,  p.  165 ;  Acta  sanctae 
sedis,  vol.  xxii,  p.  385,  et  seq. 

GSO  Text  in  Debidour,  L'Eglise  catholique  et  I'etat  sous  la  Troisieme 
Republique,  vol.   ii,  pp.  499-500;   comment  on  its   influence,   from   an 


444  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

anticlerical  viewpoint,  ibid.,  p.  39,  et  seq.;  cf.  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques 
republicans,  pp.  72-75 ;  and  Tournier,  Le  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  p.  287, 
et  seq.  The  latter  is  the  best  and  most  recent  account  of  Cardinal 
Lavigerie's  action. 

631  See  the  comments  of  a  shrewd  non-Catholic  political  observer, 
Eugene  Spuller,  in  the  article  reprinted  in  his  L'Evolution  politique 
et  sociale  de  I'eglise,  pp.  1-19. 

632  Tournier,  Le  Cardinal  Lavigerie,  p.  308. 

633  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  republicans,  p.  77. 

634  Ibid.,  pp.  77-79. 

ess  Weill,  Mouvement  social  en  France,  pp.  395-398;   Debidour,  op. 
cit.,  pp.  16-18;  et  infra,  pp.  365-374. 

636  Tournier,  op.  cit.,  pp.  340-344. 

637  Tournier,  op.  cit.,  pp.  374-375 ;  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  p.  57 ;  Spuller, 
L'Evolution  politique  et  sociale  de  I'eglise,  pp.  100-102. 

638  Dabry,  op.  cit.,  p.  104;  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  p.  56. 

639  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  republicains,  pp.  104-109. 

640  De  Mun  himself  was  active  in  forming  a  Ligue  de  propagande 
catholique  et  sociale  in  1892.     Cf.  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  pp.  84,  91,  and 
Dabry,  op.  cit.,  p.  109. 

641  Dabry,  op.  cit.,  p.  129. 

642  Ibid*,  pp.  129-130. 

643  Ibid.,  pp.  130-131. 

644  The  letter  of  February   16,   1892,   was  antedated  by  a  letter   to 
Cardinal  Lavigerie,  approving  the  policy  enunciated  in  the  Toast  of 
Algiers.     MacCaffrey,   History   of  the   Catholic  Church  in   the  Nine- 
teenth Century,  vol.  I,  p.  265: 

645  The   encyclical   Inter   Gravissimas.    The   text   is    found   in   Acta 
sanctae  sedis,  vol.  xxiv,  p.  529,  et  s,eq.    Cf.  MacCaffrey,  op.  cit.,  p.  266; 
Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  republicains,  p.  174,  et  seq.;  Calippe,  L'Attitude 
sociale,  vol.  i,  pp.  252,  et  seq.;  Spuller,  op.  cit.,  pp.  267-276. 

646  Spuller,  op.  cit.,  pp.  296-300. 

647  Dabry,  op.  cit.,  p.  178. 

648  Ibid.,  pp.  179-180. 

649  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  republicains,  pp.   177-178. 

650  Ibid.,  p.  179. 

651  Anne e  politique,  1892,  pp.  158-159;  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  pp.  90-91; 
Tournier,  p.  400;  Dabry,  pp.  109,  177-179;  Spuller,  op.  cit.,  p.  309. 

652  Vide  supra,  p.  83. 

653  Albert  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  pp.  71,  289-290,  gives  the 
text  of  the  address,  together  with  a  facsimile  reproduction  of  the  papal 
benediction  which  was  received  in  return. 

654  In  particular  see  the  commendatory  briefs   written  by   Pius  IX 
in  1871,  1874,  and  1877,  reproduced  in  de  Mun's  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p. 
316,  et  seq. 

655  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  Ma  Vocation  sociale,  p.  275,  note  2. 

656  Turmann,  Le  Developpement  du  catholicisme  social,  p.  242,  et  seq. 
Compare  de  Mun's  Bordeaux  speech  of  January  16,  1892,  urging  Cath- 
olics to  take  a  more  earnest  interest  in  social  reform,  and  agreeing 


APPENDIX  445 

with  socialistic  criticisms  of  existing  economic  evils,  but  defending 
the  principles  of  private  property  and  religion, —  in  Annee  politique, 
1892,  pp.  28-29. 

657  Calippe,  L' Attitude  sociale  des  catholiques,  vol.  ii,  p.   127,  note; 
Turmann,  op.  cit.,  pp.  244-245. 

658  An  interesting  and  frankly  partisan  account  of  the  early  develop- 
ment of  Christian  Democracy  will  be  found  in  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques 
republicans,  especially  chapters  vi,  vii,  viii;  a  shorter  and  more  schol- 
arly treatment  is  that  by  Professor  Weill,  in  his  Histoire  du  mouve- 
ment  social  en  France,  pp.  395-403;  cf.  the  same  author's  Histoire  du 
Catholicisms  liberal  en  France,  pp.  215,  229,  et  seq. 

659  The  declaration  of  Gallican  liberties  in  1682  was  an  illustration 
of  the  Gallican  spirit.     On  the  nature  and  influence  of  Gallicanism  in 
the  nineteenth   century  consult   MacCaffrey,   History   of   the   Catholic 
Church  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  vol.  i,  chapters  i  and  viii;  and  also 
Georges  Weill,  Histoire  du  catholicisme  liberal  en  France,  pp.  3-6,  8, 
212,  et  seq. 

660  See  the  comments  of  the  monarchist  leader  d'Haussonville  and 
of   the   reactionary   journals   Autorite   and   Soleil   on   the   ralliement, 
particularly  their  contention  that  the  pope  had  no  infallible  authority 
in  political  questions, —  in  Annee  politique,  1892,  passim;  cf.  also  Debi- 
dour,  op.  cit.,  p.  93 ;  Spuller,  L'Evolution  politique  et  sociale  de  I'eglise, 
pp.  123-126,  277-296. 

661  Leon  Jacques,  Les  Partis  politiques,  pp.  484-485,  184-185. 

662  Ibid.,  pp.  182-185,  485.     Note  especially  that  the  Action  fran$aise 
rejects  the  idea  of  legislative  limitation  of  the  working-day  and  at  the 
same  time  appeals  to  feelings  not  much  different  from  those  evoked 
by  the  socialist  conception  of  the  "  class-struggle." 

663  Ibid.,  p.  183. 

664  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  p.  107 ;  Dabry,  op.  cit.,  p.  308.    The  latter  gives 
the  date  as  1903, —  an  obvious  misprint. 

ees  Article  in  La   Verite  frangaise,  July  23,  1894,  cited  by  Barbier, 
Rome  et  I' Action  Liber  ale  Populaire,  pp.  35-39. 

666  Cited  by  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  republicains,  pp.  311-313. 

667  My  Italics. 

668  Cited  by  Barbier,  Rome  et  I' Action  Liberale  Populaire,  pp.  220- 
223. 

669  By  wav  of  exception  it  should  be  noted  that  a  few  monarchists 
continued    to    support    the    Social    Catholic    movement.     Most    notable 
of  all  the  monarchist  Social  Catholics  was  La  Tour-du-Pin.     But  the 
main  body  of  the  Social  Catholic  movement  was  cut  off  from  mon- 
archism. 

670  Weill,  Histoire  du  mouvement  social  en  France,  p.  260. 

671  Ibid.,  p.  257. 

672  Chambre  des  deputes,  1885,  Debats,  p.  382. 

673  Annee  politique,  1886,  pp>.  2-3. 

674  Lockroy  had  brought  in  a  bill  as  early  as  1876  for  the  legalization 
of  trade-unions.     Journal  ofliciel,  1876,  pp.  5600-5601. 

675  Chambre  des  deputes,  1885,  sess.  extr.,  Debats,  p.  19. 


446  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

676  Ch.  des  dep.  1886,  Documents,  pp.  1787,  972,  and  session  extraor- 
dinaire, p.  1057. 

677  Weill,  op.  cit.,  p.  267;  cf.  Annee  politique,  1887,  p.  103. 

678  Annee  politique,  1888,  pp.  26-27. 

679  Chambre  des  deputes,  1888,  Debats,  p.  1489. 

680  Weill,  op.  cit.,  pp.  269-270.    The  Blanquist  faction  was  inclined 
to  support  Boulanger;  the  Guesdists  held  to  class-conscious  neutral- 
ity. 

681  Vizetelly,  Republican  France,  pp.  293-342;  Annee  politique,  1888, 
passim,  1889,  pp.  173-199. 

682  Chambre   des   deputes,  session   extraordinaire,   1891,  Debats^  pp. 
2487-2490. 

683  Throughout  his   speech,  Lafargue  was  much  annoyed  by  inter- 
ruptions.    He  could  not  understand,  he  said,  why  there  was  so  much 
noise  and  tumult  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.    With  a  fine  touch  of 
irony,  he  asked  the  Chamber's  indulgence,  on  the  ground  that  he  had 
hitherto  been  accustomed  only  to  public  mass-meetings,  "  where  busi- 
ness proceeds  in  a  calmer  manner." 

684  Debats,  loc.  cit. 

685  Loc.  cit.,  speech  of  Henry  Fouquier. 

686  Loc.  cit.,  speech  of  M.  Dumay. 

687  Loc.  cit.,  speech  of  Henri  Brisson. 

688  Ibid.,  pp.  2491-2492. 

689  Eugene    Spuller,   L'Evolution  politique   et  sociale   de   I'eglise,  p. 
xii. 

690  Ibid.,  pp.  xii,  xxxv,  162. 

691  Ibid.,  p.  139. 

692  Cf.  Dictionnaire  des  parlementaires,  vol.  iv,  p.  374;  G.  Vapereau, 
Dictionnaire  universel  des  contemporains  (Paris,  1893),  p.  mo;  Weill, 
op.  cit.,  passim;  S.  P.  Orth,  Socialism  and  Democracy  in  Europe  (N. 
Y.,  1913),  p.  80,  et  seq. 

693  Chambre    des    deputes,   session    extraordinaire,    1891,    Debats,    p. 
2492.     It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  on  several  occasions,  earlier  in  the 
year,  in  debates  on  labor  questions,  de  Mun  had  rushed  to  Millerand's 
support,  earning  the  applause  of  the  Left.     Cf.  Chambre  des  deputes, 
1891,    Debats,    pp.    775,    778,    1081    and    Chambre    d.    d.,    sess.    extr. 
1891,  Debats,  pp.  2231-2232. 

694  Chambre  d.  d.,  sess.  extr.,  1891,  Debats,  p.  2492. 

695  In  the  foregoing  sketch  of  the  early  career  of  Jaures  I  have  used 
biographical  data  from  Charles  Rappoport's  Jean  Jaures  (Paris,  1915), 
Margaret  Pease,  Jean  Jaures  (N.  Y.,  1917),  and  Weill,  op.  cit.,  passim. 
Cf^  also,  S.  P.  Orth,  Socialism  and  Democracy  in  Europe,  pp.  80-117. 
None  of  these  authorities,  however,  is  responsible  for  my  interpreta- 
tion of  Jaures'  political  attitude ;  my  own  reading  in  the  Debats  and  in 
the  above-mentioned  biographies  inclines  me  to  regard  Jaures  in  action 
as  more  of  the  bourgeois  Radical  and  less  of  the  Socialist  economic 
reformer  than  he  is  usually  considered. 

696  With  some  Catholic  orators  it  was  at  this  period  a  favorite  theme 
to  denounce  the  Jewish  capitalists  who  dominated  high  finance. 


APPENDIX  447 

69T  Count  Albert  de  Mun's  speech  at  Toulouse,  in  1893,  Fide  Annee 
politigue,  1893,  p.  155  and  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  republicains,  p.  275. 

eos  From  the  Soleil;  vide  Annee  politique,  1893,  p.  155. 

ess  Annee  politique,  1893,  p.  137.  The  names  of  the  members  of  the 
Delegation  were  as  follows :  M.  Piou,  Gen.  de  Frescheville,  Prince 
d'Arenberg,  Baron  Hely  d'Oissel,  M.  Sabatier,  Count  de  Caraman,  M. 
Paul  Leroy-Beaulieu,  M.  Caplain,  M.  Delville,  M.  Francois  Maynard, 
(editor  of  the  Figaro),  Ernest  Daudet,  D.  Guibert,  A.  Viellard,  Vis- 
count Pierre  de  Pelleport-Burete,  M.  Henri  Darcy,  M.  Savoye,  and 
M.  Achille  Delorme.  This  group  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the 
campaign  committee  of  the  Republican  Right. 

700  Dabry,  Lcs  Catholiques  republicains,  p.  273,   et  seq.;  Annee  po- 
litique, 1893,  p.  266. 

701  Annee  politique,  1893,  p.  265. 

702  A  passage  from  d'Haussonville's  book,  Misere  et  remedes,  quoted 
by  M.  Paul  Deschanel  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  1896,  Debats,  p. 
1048. 

703  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  republicains,  p.  268,  et  seq. 

704  From  a  letter  defining  the  policy  of  the  rallies,  published  in  the 
Figaro,  in  January,   1893.     I  quote  it  from  the  Annee  politique,  1893, 
pp.  3-8. 

705  Annee  politique,   1893,   pp.    184-187 ;   cf.   E.   Spuller,  L'Evolution 
pol.  et  soc.  de  I'eglise,  pp.  74-77 ;  Vapereau,  Dictionnaire  universel  des 
contemporains    (Paris,    1893),   pp.    1406-1408;    Georges    Picot,    Notices 
historiques    (Paris,    1907),   vol.    ii,    pp.    1-53;    Georges    Michel,    "  Une 
Dynastic  d'economistes,"   in  Journal  des  economistes,  vol.  xxxiv,  pp. 
170-191. 

706  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  republicains,  p.  563. 

707  Annuaire  du  parlement  for  1898  and  following  years. 

708  Chainbre  des  deputes,  1891,  session  extr.,  Debats,  p.  2487,  et  seq. 

709  por  instance,  see  Ch.  d.  d.,  1891,  Debats,  p.  2487,  et  seq. 

710  Ibid.,  p.  2492. 

711Weill,  Hist,  du  mouvement  social,  p.  291. 

712  Annee  politique,  1893,  p.  156. 

713  Ibid.,  pp.  173-178. 

714  Ibid. 

715  Labusqtiiere,    La    Troisieme    Republique,    p.    264;    Levine,    Labor 
Movement  in  France,  passim*. 

716  The  electoral  programs  and  declarations  of  the  various  success- 
ful candidates   for  election  to  the   Chamber  contained   a   surprisingly 
large  number  of  references  to  the  rallies;  one  must  read  them  to  get 
any  adequate  conception  of  their  hostility  to  the  new  group.    They  are 
printed  in  Chambre  des  deputes,  1894,  Documents,  p.  1253,  et  seq. 

717  In  the  preceding  election,  when  he  ran  as  a  monarchist,  de  Mun 
had  received  5,572  votes  and  had  not  been  opposed.     In   1893  he  re- 
ceived only  4,158  votes  as  against  4,427  given  to  his  moderate  Repub- 
lican  opponent,   Le   Clec'h.     In   other   words,   because   de   Mun   aban- 
doned monarchism,  a  thousand  voters  abandoned  him  and  permitted 
an  anticlerical  Republican  to  win  the  seat.     See   Samuel  and   Bonet- 


448  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Maury,  Les  Parlemcntaires  frangais,  p.  303.  Dabry,  in  Les  Cath- 
oliques  republicans,  p.  280,  affirms  that  "  there  is  no  doubt  that  at  least 
the  defeat  of  M.  Mun  (sic~)  was  the  result  of  a  manoeuvre  of  the 
royalists."  Debidour,  op.  cit.,  pp.  92,  108,  makes  a  similar  statement. 

718  In    1889   Piou   had   obtained,   on   the    second   ballot,   7,228   votes 
against  6,229 ;  but  in  1893,  when  he  stood  for  election  as  a  rallie,  he 
obtained  only  6,168  votes,  as  compared  with  6,959  for  his  Republican  op- 
ponent.    It  is   significant  that  whereas  Piou  lost  1,060  votes,  his  op- 
ponent gained   only  730;   hence   it   seems   probable   that   several  hun- 
dred monarchists  who  had  voted   for   Piou   in   1889  simply  abstained 
from   voting   in    1893.    Cf.   Les  Parlementaires  frangais,  p.   330,   and 
Debidour,  op.  dt.,  p.  108. 

719  Cf.  Hosotte,   Troisieme  Republique,  Part  II,   p.  66. 

720  These  and  the  foregoing  figures  can  only  approximate  the  truth, 
since  the  groups  of  the  Chamber  were  in  such  a  state  of  flux  that  it 
is   impossible   to   draw   hard   and    fast   lines   between   them.     Compare 
Hosotte,  op.  cit.,  Part  II,  p.  66  and  Part  I,  p.  534,  et  seq.;  Annee  Po- 
litique,  1893,  p.  281 ;  Weill,  op.  cit.,  p.  293 ;  Levine,  Labor  Movement, 
p.  in ;  Orth,  Socialism  and  Democracy  in  Europe,  p.  81,  gives  the  num- 
ber of  socialists  as  40.     Jacques,  Les  'Partis  politiques,  p.  270,  mentions 
55  "  radicaux  socialistes." 

721  Levine,  op.  cit.,  p.  in;  but  the  Journal  des  Debats,  May  20,  1902, 
quotes  a   Socialist  calculation   that  the   number  of    Socialist  votes   in 
1893  was  440,000.     Obviously  the  discrepancy  arises  from  the  difficulty 
of  distinguishing  between  Socialists  and  Socialist-Radicals. 

722  Jaures,  speech  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  Nov.  21,  1893,  Cham- 
bre  des  deputes,  sess.  ,e.vtr.  1893,  Debats,  p.  79,  et  seq. 

723  Chambre  des  deputes,  1893,  sess.  extr.,  Debats,  p.  79,  et  seq. 

724  Hosotte,  Troisieme  Republique,  p.  537,  et  seq.;  E.  Zevort,  Histoire 
dc  la  Troisieme  Republique,  vol.  iv,,  pp.  252-254. 

725  Dictionnaire   des  parlementaircs,  vol.  i,   p.  600;   E.   A.  Vizetelly, 
Republican    France,    1870-1912    (London,    1912),    pp.    404-411;    Annce 
politique,  1893,  pp.  316-324. 

726  Annce  politique,  1893,  p.  319,  et  seq. 

727  Ibid.,  p.  326,  et  seq. 

728  These  bills  modified   (i)   the  press  law,   (2)   the  provision  of  the 
penal  code   regarding  associations    and   malefactors,    (3)    the   law   on 
explosives ;  the  fourth  bill  appropriated  800,000  f r.  for  an  increase  of 
the  police  force.    Annce  politique,  1893,  p.  329,  ct  seq. 

729  Chambre  des  deputes,  1894,  Debats,  p.  388. 

730  Spuller,  L'ftvolution  politique  et  sociale  de  I'eglise   (Paris,  1893), 
especially  pp.  v,  325-331. 

731  Hosotte,  Troisieme  Republique,  p.  543. 

732  Ibid.,  p.  541. 

733  Chambre  des  deputes,  1894,  Debats,  p.  659,  et  seq. 

734  Annce  politique,  1893,  p.  262. 

735  Ch.  des  dep.  1894,  Debats,  p.  856. 

736  Ibid.,  p.  865. 


APPENDIX  449 

737  Hosotte,  Troisieme  Republique,  p.  544;  Zevort,  Hist,  de  la  Trov- 
sieme  Republique,  vol.  iv,  pp.  286-289. 
"8  ibid. 

739  Chambre  des  deputes,  1895,  sess.  extr.  Debats,  p.  2267,  Nov.  4, 
1895. 

740  Anne e  politique,  1895,  PP-  177-178,  185-186;  idem.,  1896,  pp.  25-36, 
103-112,  139-141,  380;  Annual  Register,  1895,  p.  242,  and  1896,  pp.  228- 
229;  Hosotte,  op.  cit.,  pp.  559-565. 

741  Questions  actuelles,  vol.  xl,  p.  341. 

742  Ibid.,  p.  342. 

743  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  republicans,  p.  563. 

744  Annual  Register,  1896,  p.  237. 

745  Chambre  des  deputes,  1896,  Debats,  pp.  925,  933,  948,  1020,  1038, 
1052,  1076. 

748  Ibid.,  p.  944. 

747  Ibid.,  p.  965,  et  seq. 

748  Cf.,  R.  C.  K.  Ensor,  Modern  Socialism,  p.  48,  et  seq.;  Questions 
actuelles,  vol.  xxxiv,  pp.  98-108;  Annee  politique,  1896,  pp.  208-211; 
Jean  Jaures  (ed.),  Histoire  socialiste,  vol.  xii,  p.  284. 

749  Ibid. 

750  Weill,  Hist,  du  mouv.  soc.,  p.  311,  quoting  Bracke,  Leur  congres 
a  la  salle  Wagram  (1901). 

751  Le  Catholicisme  social  (3  vols.,  Paris,  1892-1899) ,  especially  vol. 
iii,  ch.  v.     Citations  are  from  vol.  iii,  p.  179,  and  vol.  ii,  p.  271. 

752  yers  un  ordre  social  Chretien  (2nd  ed.),  p.  347. 

753  Chambre  des  deputes,  1894,  Debats,  pp.  669-670. 

754  Vizetelly,   Republican   France,   pp.    348-371;    Hosotte,    Troisieme 
Republique,  pp.  523-532. 

755  Weill,  op.  cit.,  p.  399. 

756  Joseph    Reinach,    Histoire    de    I'affaire   Dreyfus    (7    vols.,    Paris, 
1901-1911)  ;  Hosotte,  Troisieme  Republique,  p.  582,  et  seq. 

757  On  the  attitude  of   the   Socialists,   read   Labusquiere,   Troisieme 
Republique,  p.  266,  et  seq.,  a  Socialist's  view,  and  compare  Weill,  op. 
cit.,  pp.    312-315.    The   foregoing   account    of    the   Dreyfus    affair    is 
based  on  J.  Reinach,  op.  cit.,  and  Hosotte,   Troisieme  Republique,  p. 
582,  et  seq. 

758  Dec.  4,   1897.     Ch.  des  deputes,  1897,  Debats,  p.  2734. 

759  Ch.  d.  d.,  1898,  Debats,  p.  1225. 

760  Questions  actuelles,  vol.  40,  pp.  340-341,  quoting  Meline's  speech 
at  Remiremont,  Oct.  10,  1897. 

761  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  republicans,  pp.  84-88,  566,  et  seq.;  com- 
pare with  the  statements  of  M.  Dron  in  the  Chambre  des  deputes,  1898, 
Debats,  p.  1207. 

7«2  Infra,  pp.  347-352. 

763  Supra,  p.  169. 

764  Supra,  p.  188. 

765  Infra,  pp.  3^5-374- 

766  Dabry,  op.  cit.,  pp.  568-574. 


45°  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

767  Those  rallies  who  had  been  thoroughly  absorbed  into  the  Repub- 
lican Progressist  group  are  not  counted.    The  31  are  those  who  still 
hesitated,  unwilling  wholly  to  identify  themselves  with  either  the  Con- 
servative Right  or  the  Progressists. 

768  The  Association  catholique,  the  Social  Catholic  organ,  remarked, 
"  The  scheme  of  calling  itself  Progressist  has  served  as  a  substitute, 
with   the    Moderate   Party,    for   a  program   of   social    reforms,"    first 
volume  for  1898,  p.  553,  et  seq. 

769  Annee  politique,  1898,  p.  213,  et  seq. 

770  Official  figures  given  by  Annee  politique,  1898,  p.  217.     Needless 
to  say,  different  authorities  give  different  figures.    Hosotte,  op.   cit., 
p.  586,  gives  55.    Journal  des  Debats,  May  20,  1902,  gives  43,  and  esti- 
mates the  number  of  Socialist  votes  at  751,554. 

771  Annuaire  du  parlement,  1898,  and  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  repub- 
licains,  p.  576. 

772  Annuaire  du  parlement,  1898. 

773  For  example  at  Gourdon,   in  the  department  of   Lot,  the  rallie 
Abbe  Magne  on  the  first  ballot  received  5700  votes  while  the  Progressist 
Lachieze  received  5600  and  the  Radical  Cocula  8000.    Had  the  rallie 
insisted  upon  his  right  to  fight  out  the  second  ballot  against  the  Radical, 
enough  of  the  Progressists  would  probably  have  voted  for  the  Radical 
to  give  the  latter  the  victory.     Shrewdly,   therefore,  the  rallie  with- 
drew in  favor  of  the  Progressist  and  the  Progressist  was  elected  by 
clerical  votes. 

774  Dabry,  op.  cit.,  p.  578,  et  seq. 

775  Ibid.,  p.  579.    Zevaes  it  was  who  in  1901  proposed  to  suppress  the 
religious  congregations  (monastic  orders)  altogether, —  Hosotte,  op.  cit., 
p.  635- 

"6/&iU,  p.  579- 

777  Ibid.,  p.  580. 

1™  Annee  politique,  1898,  pp.  231-245. 

iv*  Annee  politique,  1898,  pp.  335-343. 

780  Idem.,  1899,  pp.  203-218. 

781  Journal  ofltciel,  June  23,  1899,  pp.  4189-4190. 

782  The  author  has  purposely  avoided  encumbering  his  narrative  with 
a  discussion  of  the  interesting  debates  at  the  French  Socialist  congress 
of  December,  1809,  at  the  international  Socialist  congress  of  September, 
1900,   at  the   French    Socialist  congress   of    the    same   month,   at   the 
Wagram  Hall  Congress  of  May,  1901,  and  elsewhere,  on  the  question 
whether  an  orthodox  Socialist  might  be  permitted  to  enter  a  bourgeois 
cabinet.     Interesting  brief  accounts  of  the  controversy  will  be  found 
in  Weill,  op.  cit.,  pp.  316-343;  Orth,  Socialism  and  Democracy  in  Eu- 
rope, pp.  84-93.     For  full  details,  of  course,  the  "  Proceedings  "  of  the 
congresses  should  be  consulted. 

783  Labusquiere,  Troisieme  Republique  (vol.  xii  of  the  Histoire  social- 
iste},  p.  296. 

784  An  interesting  discussion  of  Millerand's  work  as  minister  is  found 
in  A.  Lavy,  L'CEuvre  de  Millerand  (Paris,  1902). 

785  Lavy,  op.  cit.,  pp.  7-16.    Decrees  of  Aug.  10,  1899. 


APPENDIX  451 

786  Ibid.,  pp.  65-77.    Decree  of  Sept.  i,  1899. 

787  Ibid.,  pp.  78-90.    Decrees  of  Sept.  17,  1900,  and  Jan.  2,  1901. 

788  Journal  officiel,  1900,  p.  2025;  Fighiera,  La  Protection  legate  des 
travallleurs,  p.  335,  et  seq.;  Lavy,  op.  cit.,  pp.  40-57. 

789Cr.ambre  des  deputes,  1900,  Documents,  pp.  721-740;  idem,  1901, 
Debats.  pp.  1242-1754;  Annee  politique,  1901,  pp.  215-223,  232-233. 

790  Ch.  d.  deputes,  1901,  Debats,  pp.  1760-1762,  2165-2179;  Senat,  1902, 
Doc.,  pp.  187-189;  Annuaire  du  parlement,  1903-1904,  p.  88;  Annee  pol., 
1901,  op.  211-213,  306-309. 

791  r.h.  d.  deputes,  1901,  Debats,  p.  2652 ;  Senat,  1902,  Debats,  pp.  658- 
664;  Journal  officiel,  March  30,  1902,  p.  2274;  Annee  pol.,  1901,  pp.  91- 
94,  325;  idem.,  1902,  pp.  79-80. 

792  Reinach,  Histoire  de  I'affaire  Dreyfus,  vol.  iii,  p.  587,  vol.  iv,  pp. 
296-310,  330-332,  416,  425-428,  571-580. 

793  See  his  book,  Vers  un  ordre  social  chretien,  passim. 

794  Reinach,  op.  cit.,  vol.  v,  ch.  iv,  v. 

795  Hosotte,    Troisieme   Republique,   p.    616 ;    Wright,    Third   French 
Republic,  p.  140,  et  seq.;  Reinach,  op,  cit.,  vol.  iv,  p.  615,  vol.  v,  pp.  74, 
113,  183-184,  257,  261,  311,  422-426,  vol.  vi,  pp.  30,  32,  59,  61,  64-65. 

796  Reinach,   op.   cit.,  vol.   v,  pp.    182-184,  251-263,   308,  311,  vol.   vi, 
pp.   63-65';   Hosotte,    op.   cit.,  p.  616.     Hosotte   asserts   that  Dcroulede 
was   absolutely  innocent  of  monarchical  conspiracy,  whereas   Reinach 
holds  the  contrary  view. 

797  Hosotte,  op.  cit.,  pp.  616-617. 

798  Ibid. 

799  Text  of  bill  as  presented,  Ch.  d.  deputes,  1899,  sess.  extr.,  Docu- 
ments, pp.  123-125 ;  text  of  law,  Journal  officiel,  July  2,  1001,  pp.  4025- 
4027;    cf.    Waldeck-Rousseau,    Associations    et    congregations    (Paris, 
1002). 

800  Text  of  bill,  Chambre  des  deputes,  1899,  sess.  extr.,  Doc.,  p.  132; 
report  of  committee,  idem,  1900,  Doc.,  p.  626. 

801  Count   Albert  de   Mun,   preface   to   Jacques    Piou,    Questions  re- 
ligieuses  et  sociales  (Paris,  1910),  p.  ix. 

802  Let  it  be  remarked  once  and  for  all  that  the  author  has  deemed 
it  wiser  to  give  an  intelligent  equivalent   rather   than   a  meaningless 
literal  translation  of  the  names  of  the  group  and  the  party. 

803  Leon  Jacques,  Les  Partis  politiques  sous  la  Troisieme  Republique 
(Paris,  1913),  p.  320. 

804  Annee  politique,  1899,  passim;  Waldeck-Rousseau,  Pour   la  Re- 
publique (Paris,  1904),  pp.  391-404,  418-426. 

805  Piou,  Amedee  Reille,  and  de  Mun.     See  Association  catholique, 
1005,  first  part,  p.i22,  et  seq.,  article  by  de  Montenon. 

see  Eugene    Flornoy,    La   Lutte   par   I'association:    L' Action    liberate 
populaire  (Paris,  1907),  p.  40,  et  seq. 

807  Joseph    Zamanski,    "  La   politique    sociale,"    in    Association    cath~ 
olique,  May,  1910,  p.  485,  et  seq. 

808  Annuaire  du  parlement,  1898,  1899,  1900,  1901. 

809  Annuaire  du  parlement,  1901.     They  were:  Alicot,  Ayme,  Blanc, 
Chambrun,  Colle,  Dansette,  Fould,  Galot,  Gay,  Gourd,  Guibert,  Loyer, 


452  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Motte,  Pascal,  Rogez,  Saint-Quentin,  Salignac-Fenelon,  and  Viellard. 
sio  Annuaire  du  parlement,  1901.  They  were  :  F.  Bougere,  L.  Bougere, 
B.  de  Castellane,  Dansette,  Daude,  Delpech-Cantaloup,  Desjardins, 
Dupuytrem,  Elva,  L'Estourbeillon,  Galot,  Gay,  Gayraud,  Jacquey,  Jaluzot, 
La  Ferronnays,  Laroche-Joubert,  Lerolle,  Pascal,  Paulmier,  Roy  de 
Loulay,  Savary  de  Beauregard. 

811  Flornoy,  L' Action  liberale  populaire,  p.  37,  et  seq.    Piou's  speech 
is  given  in  extenso  in  Questions  actuelles,  vol.  59,  p.  323,  et  seq. 

812  Flornoy,  L' Action  liberate  populaire,  pp.  38-39. 

813  Ibid.,  p.  43. 

814  The  membership  certificates  explained  the  other  parts  of  the  name 
as   follows:    "  Elle    [the   party,   I' Action  Liberale  Populaire}    s'appelle 
Action   parce   qu'elle   doit   etre   un   centre    de   vie   et   d'activite.    Elle 
s'appelle  Liberale  parce  qu'elle  veut  maintenir  ou  restaurer  dans  leur 
integrite  toutes  les   libertes   publiques,   sans   en   refuser   le  benefice  a 
personne." 

815  A  reprint  of  the  constitution  (Statuts)  may  be  found  in  Flornoy, 
L'Action  liberale  populaire,  p.  168,  et  seq.,  or  in  Jacques,  Partis  poli- 
tiques,  p.  501,  et  seq. 

816  Art.  6,  Statuts  of  the  Action  Liberale  Populaire. 

817  The  Central  Committee  was  invested  with  power  to  pronounce  — 
by  a  two-thirds  vote  — •  the  exclusion  of  one  of  its  own  members  or  — 
by  a  simple  majority  —  of  any  member  of  the  Association,  for  an  in- 
fraction of  honor  or  a  contravention  of  the  constitution,  "  or  for  an 
act  contrary  to  the  aim  and  the  spirit  of  the  Association,"  —  Statuts, 
Art.  6. 

818  Statuts,  Art.  4. 

819  Association  catholique,  1905,  first  part,  p.  122,  et  seq. 

820  Congres  de  1911.     Compte  rcndu,  p.  57. 

821  Jacques,  Partis  politiques,  pp.  306,  309. 

822  Statuts,  Art.  5. 

823  Flornoy,  L'Action  liberale  populaire,  p.  53,  ct  seq. 

824  Ibid.,  p.  57,  et  seq. 

825  See  de  Mun's  definition  of  the  bond  between  the  Jcnncsse  Cath- 
olique and  the  party,  in  Flornoy,  L'Action  liberale  populaire,  p.  148. 

826  Flornoy,  op.  cit.,  pp.  60,  150. 

827  Ibid.,  pp.  105,  152. 
S28  Ibid.,  p.  150. 

829  For  full  accounts  of  the  proceedings,  see  the  Comptc-rendus  pub- 
lished by  the  A.  L.  P.,  7,  rue  Las-Cases,  Paris. 

830  Compte-rendu  du  congrcs  general  tenu  a  Paris  .  .  .  1904,  pp.  4, 
105,  et  seq.,  127,  et  seq. 

831  See  comment  in  Flornoy,  op.  cit.,  p.  76,  et  seq.     Since  Flornoy's 
book  was  written,  the  party  bulletin  has  been  made  a  fortnightly. 

832  At  present  (1920),  MM.  Jean  Lerolle,  Henri  Bazire,  and  Joseph 
Denais,   all   members   of   the    Popular   Liberal    Party,   are   among   the 
principal  members  of  the  editorial  staff  of  La  Libre  Parole,  an  impor- 
tant Parisian  daily. 

833  Levine,  Labor  Movement  in  France,  passim. 


APPENDIX  453 

834  Supra. 

835  t.  e.,  legally  recognized  unions. 

SSG  Flornoy,  L' Action  liberate  populaire,  p.  99,  et  seq. 

837  Ibid.,  p.  loo,  et  seq.,  107,  et  seq. 

838  Ibid.,  p.   105,  et  seq.    An  interesting  list  of  the  social-economic 
institutions  maintained  by  the  party  is  given  by  the  same  author,  p.  201, 
et  seq. 

839  Leon  Jacques,  Partis  politiques,  pp.  343-344.     Compare  the  more 
sympathetic  account  of  the  party's  employment  bureaus   in   Flornoy, 
op.  cit.,  p.  96,  et  seq. 

840  Brochure  No.  no  of  the  Action  Populaire ;  Guide  social  of  the 
Action  Populaire,  1905  and  1906;  Flornoy,  op.  cit.,  pp.  50-53,  170-177; 
Repertoire  des   archives   legislatives  parlementaires  et  sociales   (pub- 
lished by  the  P.  L.  Party,  Paris,  1904,  372  pages). 

841  The  speech  may  be  conveniently  consulted  in  Questions  actuelles, 
vol.  lix,  p.  323,  et  seq. 

842  A   literal   translation   of    Piou's   phrase,   "  sur   le   terrain   consti- 
tutionel "  might  be  misleading.    He  meant  to  express  not  a  desire  to 
preserve   the   constitution    against   change    in    the    manner    of    certain 
American  constitutionalists,  constitutionally  opposed  to  innovation,  but, 
rather,  a  determination  to  refrain  from  any  attempt  to  overthrow  the 
Republic.     "  On  a  basis  of  acquiescence  in  the  Republic "  would  per- 
haps be  the  best  translation. 

843  An    obvious    reference    to    the    Volksverein,    that    great    league 
of    German    Catholics,    for    the    purposes    of    benevolent,    social,    and 
religious  action,  primarily,  rather  than  for  political  aims.     The  Volks- 
verein  in    1913    had    776,090   members,    including   26,786    women.     See 
Annce  sociale  Internationale,  4me  annee,  p.  51. 

844  Speech  delivered  by  Jacques   Piou  at  Lille,   November   17,   1901, 
on  the  occasion  of  the  annual  congress  of  the  Catholics  of  the  depart- 
ments of  the  North  and   Pas-de-Calais, —  Piou,   Questions  religieuses 
et  sociales,  p.  94,  et  seq. 

845  Ibid. 

846  Questions  actuelles,  vol.  Ixii,  p.  169,  et  seq. 

847  The  foregoing  is  a  fragmentary  resume  of  de  Mun's  speech  in  the 
Salle  des  agriculteurs  de  France,  March  15,  1902,  printed  in  Questions 
actuelles,  vol.  Ixiii,  p.  2,  et  seq. 

848  Hosotte,  Troisieme  Republique,  p.  640. 

849  Correspondant,  vol.  207,  p.  600. 

850  The   most  interesting  of  these   Liberal   defeats   was   that   which 
occurred  in  the  second  district  of  Albi    (department  of  Tarn),  where 
the  Socialist,  Jaures,  defeated  the  Liberal,  Marquis  de  Solages,  by  6494 
votes  to  6154.     Since  the  latter  had  received  6,702  votes  in  1898,  more 
than  two  hundred  of  his   former  followers  must  have  deserted  him. 
Were  these  two  hundred  deserters  intransigent  Monarchists,  or  were 
they  bourgeois   Republicans   who   from   observation  of   the    Socialists' 
attitude    toward    the    Waldeck-Rousseau    Government    had    concluded, 
with  the  premier,  that  the  "  Socialist  menace  "  was,  after  all,  not  very 
menacing,  so  long  as  the  Socialists  could  be  induced  to   spend  most 


454  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

of  their  energy  passing  laws  against  the  Catholic  Church?    Or  were 
they  workingmen  who  had  been  converted  to  Socialism? 

851 1  have  obtained  this  figure  by  count  of  the  names;  a  slightly 
smaller  figure  is  sometimes  given,  as  in  Jacques,  Partis  politiques,  p.  437. 
The  discrepancy  is  explained  by  the  fact  that  a  few  members,  affiliated 
with  the  Liberal  Group  in  1902,  drifted  away  a  year  or  two  later. 
Compare  A.nnuaire  du  parlement,  1901,  1902,  1903-4,  1905. 

852  Figures  from  Hosotte,  Troisieme  Republique,  p.  640;  compare  the 
same  work,  Deuxieme  Partie,  p.  66  and  Jacques  Partis  politiques,  pp. 
336,  437,  438.     Needless  to  remark,  the  figures  are  so  uncertain  that 
even   Jacques   cannot   remain    self-consistent;    for   example,   he   gives 
the  number  of  members  of  the  Action  Liberals  as  75  on  p.  437  and  as 
79  on  p.  336. 

853  Correspondant,  vol.  207,  p.  601,  issue  of  May  10,  1902. 

854  Action  liberate  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  congres  general  tenu 
a  Paris,  les  15,  16,  17  et  18  decembre  1904  (Paris,  1905). 

855  Ibid.,  pp.  148-151. 

856  Ibid.,  pp.  121,  126. 

857  Ibid.,  pp.  193,  217,  225. 

858  Action  liberale   populaire,   Compte-rendu   du   2°   congres  general, 
tenu  a  Paris,  les  14,  15,  16  et  17  decembre,  1905   (Paris,   1906),  pp. 
129-130. 

859  Action   liberale  populaire,   Compte-rendu   du  3e   congres  general, 
tenu  a  Lyon,  les  22,  23,  24,  25  novembre  1906  (Paris,  1907),  pp.  37-38, 
55-56,  68^-69,  80.      The  question  of  decentralization  was  further  studied 
at  the  convention  of  1907,  cf.  Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rcndn 
du  4'  congres  general  tenu  a  Bordeaux,  les  7,  8,  9  et  10  novembre' 
1907  (Paris,  1908),  p.  79. 

860  Action   liberale   populaire,   Compte-rendu  du  5e  congres  general, 
tenu  a  Paris,  les  3,  4,  5,  et  6  decembre,  1908  (Paris,  1909),  p.  20. 

861  Action   liberale   populaire,   Compte-rendu   du   6e  congres  general, 
tenu  a  Paris,  les  2,  3,  4  et  5  decembre  1909   (Paris,   1910),  pp.  33-35, 

43,  Si. 

862  Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  7"  congres  general, 
tenu  a  Paris,  les  8,  9,  10  et  n  juin  1911  (Paris,  1911),  pp.  39,  43-44, 
45',  56- 

863  Cf.  supra,  pp.  72,  101. 

864  Piou,  Questions  religienses  et  sociales,  pp.  63-64,  70. 

865  Ibid. 
8GGIbid.,  pp.  75-8o. 

807  Ibid.,  pp.  157-172.  The  following  quotations  are  from  this  same 
speech,  which  was  delivered  at  the  convention  of  Social  Workers  at 
Pau,  October  13,  1903. 

868  Cf.  supra,  p.  218. 

869  Piou,  loc.  cit. 

870  Flornoy,  U Action  liberale  populaire,  p.  65. 

871  From  a  letter  written  by  Jacques  Piou  to  the  editor  of  the  Croix, 
describing  the  character  of  the  Popular  Liberal  Party,  published  in  the 


APPENDIX  455 

Croix  of   October   18,   1906,   and   reproduced   in   Piou,   Questions  re- 
ligieuses  et  societies,  p.  16,  et  seq. 

872  Since  1891  the  magazine  no  longer  served  as  the  organ  of  the 
Clubs,  but  de  Mun  continued  to  write  articles  for  it,  and  its  editors 
were  in  close  sympathy  with  the  leading  spirits  in  the  Clubs. 

873  Association  catholique,  1898,  first  part,  p.  553,  et  seq. 

874  Association  catholique,  1899,  first  part,  pp.  51-53. 

875  Association  catholique,  1899,  first  part,  p.  I. 

876  Association  catholique,  1899,  nfst  part,  p.  i,  et  seq. 

877  Ibid. 

878  Association  catholique,  1905,  first  part,  p.  131,  et  seq. 

879  Association  catholique,  1910,  first  part,  p.  485',  et  seq. 

sso  por  a  gOO(i  expression  of  this  view,  see  article  on  "  Le  Role 
social  de  I'eglise,"  by  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  in  Association  catholique, 
1909,  December,  p.  1319,  et  seq.  He  asserts  that  the  Church  never 
accepted  the  role  of  a  "  sort  of  religious  gendarmerie  but  rather  was 
from  the  beginning  the  champion  of  the  downtrodden,  coming  forth 
from  the  catacombs,  defending  the  enchained  slaves  against  pitiless 
masters,  the  oppressed  against  the  oppressors  " ;  in  the  Middle  Ages  it 
had  enforced  Sunday  rest,  curbed  usury  and  profiteering,  safeguarded 
the  dignity  of  labor,  protected  women  and  children  from  industrial 
exploitation,  limited  hours  of  labor,  dispensed  charity,  and  through 
quasi-religious  fraternities  cared  for  the  aged  and  the  infirm.  The 
Reformation,  the  Renaissance,  and  the  resultant  Caesaristic  state  had 
withered  the  beneficent  influence  of  Christianity,  but  even  so,  de  Mun 
believed  that  still  "  the  Church  alone  is  independent  enough,  disinter- 
ested enough,  to  love  the  people  sincerely  and  without  ulterior  motive." 

881  Proposition  de  loi  sur  1'organisation  professionnelle,  presented  by 
MM.    Leonce    de    Castelnau,    Piou,    Ollivier,    de    Mun,    and    Lerolle. 
Chambre  des  deputes,  2906,  Documents,  p.  768. 

882  Comptes-rendus  of  the  A.  L.  P.  conventions,  passim. 
?3  Piou,  Questions  religieuses  et  sociales,  p.  245,  et  seq. 

884  Revue  des  deux  mondes,  June  15,  1897,  pp.  801-806. 

885  Resolution  of  the  Party  Convention  of  1904,  Action  liberale  popu- 
laire,  Compte-rend<u   du  congres  general   tenu  a  Paris,  les  15,  16,  17 
et  18  decembre,  1904,  p.  225 ;  cf.  also  pp.  217-225. 

886  Ibid.,  pp.  171-193.     Numerous  examples  are  cited. 

887  Ibid.,  p.  193. 

888  Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  3"  congres  general, 
tenu  a  Lyon,  les  22,  23,  24,  et  25  novembre,  1906,  pp.  37-38,  56. 

889  A  resolution  favoring  proportional  representation  with  the  scrutin 
de  liste  was  passed  by  the  party  convention  in  1904,  see  the  Compte- 
rendu,  p.  217.    The  system  of  voting  by  list,  with  whole  departments 
as  constituencies,  had  been  employed  in  the  election  of  the  National 
Assembly  of  1871,  it  will  be  remembered,  but  a  system  of  uninominal 
voting,  with  single-member  constituencies,  i.  e.,  the  scrutin  d'arrondisse- 
ment, —  had  been  introduced  in  1876;  after  a  reversion  to  the  scrutin  de 
liste  in  1885,  the  scrutin  d'arrondissement  was  reintroduced  in  1889. 


456  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

890  Chambre  des  deputes,  1900,  Session  extraordinaire,  Documents, 
P-  304- 

891  See   Dansette's   Bill,   Chambre  des  deputes,  1903,  Documents,  p. 
837;  Massabuau's  Bill,  Chambre  des  deputes,  1906,  Documents,  p.  587, 
Massabuau's   Bill,    Chambre   des  deputes,   1910,   x*   legislature,  Docu- 
ments, p.  494. 

892  Chambre  des  deputes,  1909,  Debats,  p.  2330. 

893  Chambre  des  deputes,  1912,  Debats,  p.  2192,  et  seq. 

894  Annuaire  du  parlement,  1909,  p.  230. 

895  Chambre  des  deputes,  1911,  Debats,  p.  2198. 

896  Chambre  des  deputes,  1912,  Debats,  p.  2221. 

897  Chambre  des  deputes,  1914,  Debats,  pp.  377-387. 

898  Electoral  Reform  Act  of  July  12,  1919.    Text  in  Revue  politique 
et  parlementaire,  August,   1919,  p.  205.     Cf.  Georges  Lachapelle,  Les 
Elections  legislatives  du  16  novembre  1919  (Paris,  1920). 

899  A.  L.  P.,  Compte-rendu  du  6"  congres  general,  p.  44;  Association 
catholique,  1910,  part  i,  pp.  88-89. 

900  Chambre  des  deputes,  1906,  Documents,  p.  768,  et  seq. 

902  A.    Esmein,   Elements  de  'droit   constitutional    (Paris,    6th   ed., 
1914),  pp.  252-260;  L.  Duguit,  Traite  de  droit  constitutionnel   (Paris, 
1911),  passim;  A.  L.  Lowell,  The  Governments  of  France,  Italy,  and 
Germany   (Cambridge,  1914),  pp.  2-118;  E.  M.  Sait,  Government  and 
Politics  of  France  (Yonkers,  1920). 

903  Leon  Duguit  and  Henry  Monnier,  Les  Constitutions  et  les  princi- 
pales  lois  politiques  de  la  France  depuis  1789   (Paris,   1898),  pp.   1-4, 
36-38,  66-69,   78-80,    127-129,    183-185,    196-197,    213-214,    233-236,   274. 
Cf.  L.  Duguit,   Traite   de  droit  constitutionnel   (Paris,   1911),  vol.   ii, 
pp.  5-i6. 

904  Quoted  from  a  report  by  M.  Souriac,  at  the  convention  of  1906. 
Vide,  Action  libcrale  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  3"  congres  general, 
tenu  a  Lyon,  les  22,  23,  24,  et  25  novembre,  1906,  p.  42. 

905  Action   liberate  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  3'  congres  general, 
.  .  .  1906,  p.  55.     Resolution  adopted  by  unanimous  vote  of  the  party 
convention. 

soelbid.,  p.  44. 

907  These  details  are  contained  in  M.  Souriac's  report  at  the  conven- 
tion of  1906,  cf.  Compte-rendu,  pp.  52,  54-55.     The  resolution  voted  by 
the  convention  was  couched  in  more  general  terms  as  follows :  "  3.  That 
the  institution  of  a  court  or  supreme  tribunal,  composed  of  irremovable 
magistrates  absolutely  independent  in  their  selection  and  in  the  exer- 
cise of  their  functions,  should  be  established  as  the  guardian  of  the 
constitution,  as  protector  of  the  public  liberties  inscribed  therein,  and 
with  the  right  to   annul  or  to  declare  void  any  act,  whether  of  the 
executive  or  of  the  legislative  power,  which  infringes  upon  these  liber- 
ties." 

908  Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rendu   du  j6   congres  general, 
.  .  .  1906,  p.  56.     Resolution  adopted  by  the  convention. 

909  Journal  oificiel,  1875,  pp.  1521,  1545,  5489. 

910  Cf.  Esmein,  op.  cit.,  pp.  636-854 ;  Duguit,  op.  cit.,  vol.  ii,  pp.  416- 


APPENDIX  457 

514;  Lowell,  op.  cit.,  pp.  26-65;  F.  A.  Ogg,  Governments  of  Europe 
(N.  Y.,  1916),  pp.  308-311;  Sait,  op.  cit.,  pp.  31-67. 

911  Esmein,  op.  cit.,,  pp.  252-259;   Sait,  op.  cit.,  passim;  Lowell,  op. 
cit.,  pp.  117-118. 

912  Action  liberate  populaire,  Compte-rendu  'du  3"  congres  general, 
.  .  .  1906,  pp.  44-46,  50-52,  56. 

913  Action  liberate  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  6"   congres  general, 
.  .  .  1906,  pp.  29-30. 

914  Ibid.,  pp.  10-11. 

915  Ibid.,  pp.  20-36. 

916  L' 'Action  liberate  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  6e  congres  general, 
.  .  .  1909,  p.  ii. 

917  L' 'Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  4"  congres  general, 
.  .  .  1907,  p.  6. 

918  M.  Charles  Brun,  quoted  at  the  1007  convention,  op.  cit.,  p.  66. 

919  L' 'Action  liberate  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  3'  congres  general, 
1906,  p.  56. 

920  L' Action  liberate  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  4"  congres  general, 
.  .  .  1907,  p.  64,  et  seq. 

921  Ibid.,  pp.  66-67. 

922  Ibid.,  pp.  67-69,  72-73. 

923  Ibid.,  p.  69. 

924  Ibid.,  pp.  70-72. 

925  Ibid.,  p.  70. 

926  Jean  Jacques   Rousseau,  Du  Contrat  social   (ed.  by  Geo.   Beau- 
lavon,  Paris,  1914),  p.  271. 

927  L' Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  3'  congres  general, 
.  .  .  1906,  p.  56. 

928  L' Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  7"  congres  general, 
.  .  .  1911,  pp.  35-39.     The  same  convention  also  resolved.  "  That,   for 
the   municipal    elections   of    1912,   all   the   committees    (of   the   party) 
be  invited  to  include  the  question  of  the  municipal  referendum  among 
those  which  figure  in  their  programs ;  that,  furthermore,  the  executive 
committee  send  to  all  the  local  groups  instructions  regarding  the  appli- 
cation of  the  municipal  referendum." 

929  Le  Programme  social  et  politique  de  V Action  liberale  populaire 
(published  by  the  secretariat  of  the  party,  Paris,  1913),  p.  4. 

930  Speech  of  Oct.   15,   1905,  in  Jacques  Piou,   Questions  religieuses 
et  so  dales,  p.  228. 

931  Eugene    Flornoy,    La    Lutte    par    I' association:    I'Action    liberale 
populaire  (Paris,  1907),  pp.  1-3. 

932  Le  Programme  social  et  politiaue  de  I'Action  liberale  populaire, 
p.  .^.  and  Compte-rendu  du  3"  congres  general  .  .  .  1906,  p.  55. 

933  Journal  officiel.  1005.  p.  7205. 

934  Article  d  provided  that  the  associations  for  public  worship  should 
conform  "to  the  general  rules  of  ore-animation  of  the  religion  of  which 
thev  proposed  to  assure  the  exercise."     In  deciding  disputes,  therefore, 
under  article  8,  the  council  of  state  would  have  to  decide  which  asso- 
ciation really  conformed  to  "  the  general  rules  of  organization  "  of  the 


458  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

religion  in  question.  Owing  to  the  opposition  of  the  Catholics,  the 
government  refrained  from  enforcing  the  provision  regarding  asso- 
ciations, and,  by  a  law  of  Jan.  2,  1907,  the  clergy  was  permitted  to 
use  the  church  buildings,  without  being  given  legal  title.  Journal 
officiel,  1907,  pp.  34,  997. 

935  Compte-rendu  du  6"  congres  general,  p.  55. 

936  Chambre  des  deputes,  1901,  Debats,  pp.  64-65. 

937  Journal  officiel,  1901,  pp.  4025,  4087,  5240. 

938  Chambre  des  deputes,   1903,  Debats,  pp.    1117,    1137,    1179,   1199, 
1219,  1245,  1306,  1359,  2163. 

939  Piou,  Questions  religieuses  et  sociales,  pp.  39-40. 

940  Speeches  by  Piou  and  Grousseau,  Jan.  17  and  21,  1910,  in  Cham- 
bre des  deputes,  1910,  Debats,  pp.  112-122,  248-254. 

941  Journal  officiel,  1882,  p.  1697.     One  day  a  week,  besides  Sunday, 
was   allowed,   in   which   religious   instruction   might  be   given,    outside 
the  school.     Priests  were  not  allowed  to  give  religious  instruction  in 
the  school  building  even  outside  of  class  hours. 

942  Journal  officiel,  1886,  p.  4997. 

943  Law  of  July  I,  1901,  cf.  Journal  officiel,  1901,  p.  4025-. 

944  Law  of  July  7,  1904,  cf.  Journal  officiel,  1904,  p.  4129.    The  schools 
maintained  by  religious  orders  were  to  be  suppressed  within  a  maximum 
of  ten  years. 

945  Le  Programme  social  et  politique  de  I' Action  liberale  populaire, 

P.  7- 

946  Ibid.,  pp.  4,  32-33 ;  and  Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du 
7"  congres  general  .  .  .  1911,  pp.  17,  24,  et  seq.,  47,  et  seq.,,  56. 

947  Leon  Jacques,  Les  Partis  politiques  sous  la  HI'  Republique  (Paris, 
1913),  PP-  341-342. 

948  Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rendu   du  3"  congres  general, 
.  .  .  1906,  p.  118. 

g49  Idem,  Compte-rendu  du  4"  congres  general  .  .  .  1907,  p.  114. 

950  Speech  at  Pau,  Oct.  13,  1903,  in  Piou,  Questions  religieuses  et  so- 
ciales, p.  171. 

951  Speech  at  Besangon,  Nov.  29,  1903,  in  A.  de  Mun,  Combats  d'hicr 
et  d'aujourd'hui,  vol.  i,  p.  467,  et  seq. 

952  Chambre  des  deputes,  1905,  Debats,  p.  268. 
953/foU,  p.  279. 

9*4  Ibid. 

955  Ibid.,  pp.  277-280. 

956  Ibid.,  pp.  281-283. 

957  Piou,  Questions  religieuses  et  sociales,  pp.  48-49. 
95s  Ibid.,  p.  48. 

959  Ibid.,  p.  165. 

960  A.  de  Mun,  Combats  d'hier  et  d'aujourd'hui,  vol.  i,  pp.  434-435. 

961  Ibid.,  p.  449. 

962  The  Law  of  March  30,  1000,  limiting  the  working  day  to  eleven 
hours  for  women  and  children  and  for  men  working  in  the  same  shops 
with  women  or  children.    The  limit  of  eleven  hours  was  to  be  reduced 


APPENDIX  459 

to  ten  and  one-half  after  two  years,  and  to  ten  after  another  two  year 
delay. 

963  Chambre  des  deputes,  1904,  Debats,  p.  785,  et  seq.,  789,  et  seq. 

964  Action  liberals  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  je  congres  general, 
.  .  .  1906,  pp.  6-7. 

965  Piou,  Questions  religieuses  et  sociales,  p.  170. 

960  A.  de  Mun,  Combats  d'hier  et  d'aujourd'hui,  vol.  ii,  pp.  273-274. 

967  Ibid.,  vol.  i,  p.  469. 

968  Piou,  Questions  religieuses  et  sociales,  pp.  264-265. 

969  Ibid. 

970  This  decision  was  taken  at  the  eighth  party  convention,  January, 
1914,  Cf.  Le  Temps,  Jan.  31,  Feb.  1-3,  1914. 

971  In  a  debate  on  Tunisian  affairs,  Nov.  9,  1881,  de  Mun  threw  the 
Chamber  into  an  uproar  by  using  the  expression,  "  the  difficulty  which 
the  republican  regime  has  in  sustaining  worthily  our  national  honor," 
—  Cf.  Chambre  des  deputes,  1881,  Debats,  p.  1993,  et  seq.    In  the  debate 
on  Franco-German  negotiations  respecting  Morocco,  de  Mun  delivered 
a   patriotic   oration   which   won    unusual    applause, —  Ch.  des  d.,  1911, 
Debats,  sess.  extr.,  pp.  3970-3973. 

972  Chambre  des  deputes,  1900,  Debats,  p.  1870. 

973  Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  congres  general  .  .  . 

1904,  P-  15- 

974  The  author  was  informed  at  the  Office  of  the  party  that  among 
the  deputies  who  served  in  the  army  were  Lt.  Col.  Plichon,  M.  Enger- 
and,  Lt.  Col.  Driant,  M.  Dutreil,  Col.  Cochin,  M.  Rene  Reille,  M.  de 
Constans,  M.  Ybarnegarey,  M.  Blaisot,  M.  Tailliandier.    Col.  Cochin, 
M.  Reille,  Lt.  Col.  Driant,  and  M.  Tailliandier  lost  their  lives. 

975  The  last  sentence  is  from  an  obituary  article  by  Francois  Veuillot, 
quoted  by  A.   Saint-Pierre,  in  his  Le  Comte  Albert  de  Mun,  p.  53, 
et   seq.    Cf.   L.    de    Grandmaison,    "  Le    Comte    Albert    de    Mun,"    in 
Etudes,  vol.  141,  pp.  25-52. 

976  La  Presse  de  Paris,  Nov.  17,  1919;  Le  Temps,  Dec.  17,  1919,  and 
Jan.  2,  1920. 

977  Chambre  des  deputes,  1891,  Debats,  p.  2492. 

978  Paris,  1909,  vol.  ii,  pp.  331-332. 

979  Paris,  1909,  pp.  224-225. 
oso  pariS)  igi^,,  P-  339,  et  seq. 

98i1  Cf.  Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  7*  congres  gen- 
eral .  .  .  I9II,  p.   112. 

982  Cf.  Ibid.,  p.  1 10. 

983  Ibid.,  p.  15. 

984  Abbe  Naudet,  Pourquois  les  catholiques  ont  perdu  la  bataille  (2nd. 
ed.),  p.  217,  et  seq. 

985  Pierre  Dabry,  Les  Catholiques  rcpublicains,  Histoire  et  souvenirs 
1890-1903  (Paris,  1905),  p.  696. 

986  Ibid.,  p.  700. 

987  Ibid.,  p.  690. 

988  Ibid.,  p.  728. 


460  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

989  Ibid.,  p.  694. 

990  Abbe  Emmanuel  Barbier,  Rome  et  I' Action  liberale  populaire,  His- 
toire  et  documents  (2nd  ed.,  Paris  and  Poitiers),  pp.  246-247. 

991  Ibid.,  pp.  238-239. 

992  Ibid.,  pp.  218-219.     Inasmuch   as   one   of   Abbe   Barbier's  books, 
Le  Progres  du  liberalisme  catholique  en  France  sous  le  Pope  Leon 
XIII  was  placed  on  the  Index  by  a  decree  of  May  28,  1908,  it  may  be 
doubted  whether  he  is  an  authoritative  interpreter  of  the  papal  policy 
as  regards  liberalism.    A  decree  of  Jan.  4,   1909,  announced  that  he 
had  praiseworthily  submitted  to  the  correction  of  his  views. 

993  Ibid.,  p.  276. 

994  Ibid.,  pp.  37-38.    He  quotes  a  letter  written  by  M.  Arthur  Loth  in 
1894,  claiming  that  the  Republican  factions  had  never  obtained  even  a 
majority  of  the  electoral  body. 

995  Ibid.,  p.  269.     He  quotes  these  figures  from  a  computation  made 
by  L' Action  catholique  frangaise. 

996  L.  Hosotte,  Histoire  de  la  Troisieme  Republique,  Part  II   (Paris 
and  Besanc.on,  1912),  pp.  66-67. 

997  According  to  a  calculation  based  on  official  returns  of  the  first 
ballot. 

998  Le  Programme  social  et  politique  de  V Action  liberale  populaire 
(Paris,  1913),  P-  2. 

999  Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  5*  congres  general 
.  .  .  1908,  p.  20. 

1000  L  Action  Liberale  Populaire,  Bulletin  bi-mensuel  de  I' Association, 
July  15,  1919,  p.  7. 

1001  Jacques,  Les  Partis  politiques,  p.  343. 

1002  Le  Temps,  April  9,  1919. 

1008  L' Action  Liberal  Populaire,  Bulletin  bi-mensuel  de  I' Associa- 
tion, July  15,  1919,  pp.  9-10. 

1004  A  complete  bibliography  of  these  would  be  almost  a  volume  in 
itself.     Many  are  cited  in  the  footnotes  of  this  and  preceding  chapters. 
For  others,  consult  the  bibliographies  in  the  successive  issues  of  L  Asso- 
ciation catholique,  Le  Mouvement  social,  and  L'Annee  sociale.    The 
Catholic  universities  are  producing  in  increasing  number  dissertations 
on  philosophical,   legal,  and  economic  aspects   of  the  social  problem, 
and  on  the  lives  and  works  of  precursors  of  the  Social  Catholic  move- 
ment. 

1005  The   most  convenient   source   of   information   concerning   these 
various  institutions  is  the  Annee  sociale  Internationale.    The  same  work 
provides  useful  bibliographies  for  further  research. 

looe  Professor  Max  Turmann,  in  his  Le  Develop pement  du  cath- 
olicisme  social,  makes  his  whole  program  rest,  logically,  upon  the 
Christian  view  of  the  dignity  of  the  laborer;  in  the  first  place,  dignity 
as  an  individual,  which  involves  a  minimum  wage,  Sunday  holiday,  a 
maximum  working  day,  shop  committees  or  joint  boards,  and  profit- 
sharing  ;  in  the  second  place,  as  the  head  of  a  family,  which  function 
requires  a  wage  sufficient  for  the  family,  interdiction  of  night  work, 
restriction  of  the  employment  of  women,  and  protection  of  small 


APPENDIX  461 

holdings ;  in  the  third  place,  as  member  of  a  profession,  which  involves 
proper  organization  of  the  trades. 

1007  £ble,  Les  £,coles  catholiques  d'economie  politique  et  sociale  en 
France,  p.  248. 

1008  Ibid. 

1009  Annee  sociale  Internationale,  1913-1914,  p.  51. 

1010  jn  1904,  for  example,  the  chairman  of  the  central  committee  of 
the  A.  C.  J.  F.  was  Jean  Lerolle,  who  is  a  conspicuous  member  of  the 
Popular  Liberal   Party,  while  the  first  vice-chairman  was  Joseph  Za- 
manski,  who  is  one  of  the  most  important  figures  in  the  Action  popu- 
laire,  and  joint  editor  of  Le  Mouvement  social. 

ion  "phe  following  account  of  the  Action  Populaire  is  based  upon 
personal  observations  and  inquiries,  upon  consultation  of  the  various 
publications  of  the  organization,  and  upon  the  following  descriptions  of 
its  work :  Georges  Goyau,  "  L' Action  Populaire  de  Reims,  son  histoire, 
son  role,"  in  Le  Correspondant,  June  25,  1912,  pp.  1058-1077 ;  G.  Desbu- 
quois,  L' Action  Populaire,  son  esprit,  son  travail,  No.  i  of  the  yellow 
brochures  published  by  the  Action  Populaire;  the  Catalogue  general 
des  publications  de  I' Action  Populaire  de  Reims,  1916;  Annee  sociale 
Internationale,  1913-1914,  p.  48,  et  seq.;  and  Irene  Hernaman,  Catholic 
Social  Action  in  France,  a  brochure  published  by  the  Catholic  Truth 
Society  of  London,  being  an  account  of  a  visit  to  the  office  at  Rheims. 

1012  Annee  sociale  Internationale,  1913-1914,  p.  51. 

1013  Georges  Goyau,  loc.  cit. 

1014  Guide  social  1913-1914,  tenth  year,  published  by  the  Action  Popu- 
laire at  Rheims,  1914,  and  its  Paris  agent,  Lecoffre. 

1015  Guide  social,  1911,  preface,  p.  3. 

1016  Annee  sociale  Internationale  1913-14:  Bilan  des  Idees  et  des  In- 
stitutions: 4me  Annee  (Rheims  and  Paris,  1914),  preface,  p.  vi. 

1017  Ibid.,  p.  v. 

1018  Manuel  social  pratique,  published  by  Action  Populaire   (Rheims, 
1910,  sixth  thousand)   part  two,  ch.  ii,  section  A. 

1019  Manuel  de  droit  pratique  usuel  et  rural,  by  Jean  Hachin  (Action 
Populaire,  Rheims). 

1020  The    Guide    pratique    'de    lois    d'assistance    (Action    Populaire, 
Rheims)  gives  an  exposition  of  and  commentary  on  the  laws  on  public 
assistance  of  maternity  cases,  of  children,  of  large  families,  on  accident 
compensation,  old-age  pensions  and  old-age  assistance,  etc. 

1021  Vocabulaire   economique   et  social    (Action  Populaire,   Rheims). 

1022  L' Almanack  illustrc  de  I' Action  Populaire,  a   130-page  almanac, 
with  a  circulation  of  over  120,000. 

1023  Manuel  pratique  d'action  religieuse. 

1024  Guide  d' Action  religieuse  for  1008  and  for  1909. 

1025  Guide  de  I'ecole  libre. 

1026  Le  Mouvement  social,  Jan.,  1909,  p.  7. 

1027  LeOn  de  Seilhac,  Les  Congres  ouvriers  en  France. 

1028  Eugene  Duthoit,  Vers  I' organisation  professionnelle. 

1029  o.  Jean,  Le  Syndicalisme :  son  origine,  son  organisation,  son  role 
social, 


462  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

1030  j    Hachin   and    A.    Agasse,   Retraites   ouvrieres   et   paysannes : 
Commentaire  pratique  de  la  loi. 

1031  La  Question  de  I'apprentissage :  Etudes  et  enquetes  presentees  d 
I'Assemblee  generate   de   I'CEuvre   des  Cercles   catholiques,  1913,   and 
L'£lite  ouvricre  catholique,  a  publication  of  the  reports  and  delibera- 
tions of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Association  of  Catholic  Work- 
ingmen's  Clubs.  • 

1032  Maurice  Rigaux,  Vers  les  humbles :    Drame  social  des  premiers 
siccles  du  christianisme. 

1033  idem,,  Quand  I'dme  est  droit. 

1034  Ch.  Calippe,  Balzac :  ses  idees  sociales. 

1035  Rene  Johannet,  L'£volution  du  roman  social  au  xixe  siccle. 

lose  G  Goyau,  "  L' Action  Populaire  de  Reims :  son  histoire  —  son 
role  '  (in  Le  Correspondent,  June  25,  1912,  pp.  1058-1077). 

1037  Irene  Hernaman,  Catholic  Social  Action  in  France  (brochure 
published  by  the  Catholic  Truth  Society  of  London)  ;  G.  Goyau, 
"  L' Action  Populaire  de  Reims:  son  histoire  —  son  role"  (in  Le  Cor- 
respondant,  June  25,  1912,  pp.  1058-1077)  ;  Annee  sociale  Internationale 
1913-1914,  p.  50. 

loss  Goyau,  loc.  cit.;  Annee  sociale  international,  1913-1914,  p.  49. 

1039  fhe  following  paragraphs  are  all  based  upon  the  series  of  articles 
—  of  which  they  are  a  summary  —  published  by  Abbe  Desbuquois  in 
Le  Mouvement  social,  Aug.,  1912,  p.  672,  et  seq.;  Sept.,  p.  779,  et  scq.; 
Oct.,  p.  865,  et  seq.,  under  the  title  "  L' Action  sociale  catholique." 

1040  The  word  syndicalism  comes  from  the  French  word  for  a  union, 
and  specifically  for  a  trade  union, —  syndicat.    But  revolutionary  propa- 
ganda   aiming    to    overthrow   political    democracy    and    to    make    the 
syndicats  of  the  workingmen  all-powerful  gave  revolutionary  implica- 
tions to  the  word  syndicalisms.     Still,  the  word  is  sometimes  used  to 
designate  labor-unionism,  the  revolutionary  movement  being  described 
as  syndicalisme  revolutionnaire. 

1041  These  prophetic  words,  it  should  be  recalled,  were  written  not  in 
1919,   when  the   Great  War  and   the   Bolshevist  uprisings   in   Russia, 
Hungary  and   Germany  had  made  such  events  all  too  actual,  but  in 
1912,   when   the   Great   Powers   were   at   peace   and   the   social    order 
seemingly  secure. 

1042  jn  f.ne  Catalogue  general  des  publications  de  V Action  Populaire 
de  Reims,  1916,  pp.  4-6,  are  cited  a  number  of  endorsements  of  the 
Action  Populaire.     The  Pope,  the  papal  secretary  of  state,  six  cardinals, 
and  76  French  bishops  and  archbishops  have  commended  the  institution. 
In    1912,    Pius   X    said  to   a   French   bishop,   referring  to   the   Action 
Populaire,  "  non  solum  laudo  sed  approbo."    Cardinal  Merry  del  Val, 
papal   secretary  of   state,  wrote   on  July  8,    1909,  "  Among  the   social 
works  so  useful  and  so  highly  recommended  for  the  present  age.  the 
Holy  Father  is  not  ignorant  of  the  zeal  with  which  the  Action  Popu- 
laire .  .  .  pursues  its  noble  aim.    But  what  especially  pleases  the  Sov- 
ereign Pontiff  is  to  observe  by  what  principles  the  Action  Populaire 
is  inspired.    Its  frankly  Catholic  spirit,  superior  to  all  party  struggles, 


APPENDIX  463 

its  entire  fidelity  to  the  teachings  of  the  Church,  from  which  it  pro- 
fesses to  receive  all  its  strength  and  its  direction,  finally,  its  generous 
aim  of  working  for  the  true  welfare  of  the  working  class,  which  is  so 
worthy  of  interest,  are  pledges  that  it  will  produce  precious  and  en- 
during fruits.  .  .  ."  In  1911,  also,  Cardinal  Merry  del  Val  sent  a 
telegram  to  the  congress  of  the  Action  Populaire  at  Paris,  expressing 
the  pope's  "  paternal  encouragements."  Cardinal  Lucon,  archbishop 
of  Rheims,  wrote  in  1911,  "For  five  years  as  I  have  watched  you  at 
work  in  my  episcopal  city  and  in  my  diocese,  I  have  admired  your  in- 
telligence in  social  work  and  Catholic  work,  your  fruitful  activity, 
the  zeal  with  which  you  apply  yourselves  to  promoting  devotion  among 
the  popular  classes,  and  with  which  you  strive  toward  the  aims  de- 
fined by  the  Church  and  toward  the  solution  of  the  Social  Question. 
All  the  world  feels  the  necessity  of  social  action,  but  many  do  not 
know  how  to  undertake  it :  they  have  not  been  trained  for  it,  they 
have  not  had  experience  in  it.  The  orthodoxy  of  your  principles, 
your  Catholic  spirit,  your  scrupulous  attention  to  conformity  with 
the  directions  of  the  Holy  See,  as  well  as  the  talent  and  science  of 
your  collaborators,  make  the  Action  Populaire,  in  my  opinion,  a  trust- 
worthy school  of  social  studies,  and  make  its  publications,  the  classics, 
so  to  speak,  of  Catholic  work.  .  .  ." 

1043  This  section  is  based  upon  the  Comptes  rendus  of  the  Semaines 
societies  of  Orleans   (1905),  Dijon   (1906),  Amiens   (1907),  Marseilles 
(1908),   Bordeaux    (1009),  Rouen    (1910),    Saint-Etienne    (1911),   Li- 
moges  (1912),  and  Versailles   (1913),  and  the  following  articles:     M. 
Rigaux,  La  Semaine  sociale  de  Rouen  (No.  134  of  the  Action  Pop- 
lalre's  yellow  brochure  series);  H.  J.  Leroy,  "La  Semaine  sociale  de 
Limoges"    (in   Le   Mouvement   social,   vol.    74,    pp.   821-824);    Albert 
Chapon,   "  La   Semaine   Sociale "    (in  Le  Monde  economique,  Aug.   9, 
1913)  ;  Hubert  Lagardelle,  "  Les  Catholiques  sociaux  "   (in  Le  Mouve- 
ment socialiste,  vol.  32,  pp.  199-201)  ;  Georges  Blondel,  "Les  Semaines 
sociales  "  (in  Le  Monde  economique,  June  7,  1913)  ;  A.  Boissard,  "La 
Semaine  sociale  de  Versailles "    (in  Revue   hebdomadaire,  Aug,   1913, 
pp.  522-521);  Robert  Ulens,  "La  Semaine  sociale  de  Versailles"   (in 
Revue  social  catholique,  vol.  17,  pp.  376-377)  ;  fitienne  Lamy,  "  A  propos 
des    semaines    sociales ;   Socialistes    et    Catholiques "    (in    Le    Corre- 
spondant,  Aug.   25,   1909,  vol.  236,   pp.  625-653)  ;   Louis  Riviere,   "  La 
Semaine  sociale  de  Versailles  "  (in  La  Re  forme  sociale,  vol.  66,  pp.  467- 
476)  ;    A.   Danset,   "  De   Versailles   a   Besangon "    (in   Le   Mouvement 
social,  July   15,    1914,  pp.   34-55)  ;    Abbe    Ch.    Calippe,   "La   'Semaine 
sociale'  d'Amiens  "  (in  Revue  hebdomadaire,  Aug.,  1907,  pp.  632-644)  ; 
A.  Albaret,  "La  Semaine  sociale  de  Saint-Etienne"  (in  Revue  sociale 
catholique,  vol.  16,  pp.   1-20)  ;  Max  Turmann,  Le  Developpement  dn 
catholicismc  social   (Paris,   1909),   pp.  328-329;   and   Count  Albert  de 
Mun's  letters  to  the  Semaines  sociales  (Le  Mouvement  social,  vol.  74,  pp. 
859-860,  vol.  76,  p.  90). 

1044  See,   for  example,   Hubert  Lagardelle's   significant   comment   in 
Le  Mouvement  socialiste,  vol.  32,  pp.  199-201. 


464  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

1045  Le  Correspondent,  Aug.  25,  1909,  vol.  236,  pp.  625-653. 
1046 A.  Boissard,  "La  Semaine  sociale  de  Versailles"   (Revue  heb- 
domadaire,  Aug.,  1913,  pp.  522-531). 

1047  Turmann,   Le   Developpement   du   catholicisme   social,  pp.   328- 
341;    Annee  sociale  Internationale   1913-1914,   pp.   55-56;    Blondel,   in 
Le  Monde  economique,  June  7,  1913;  Boissard,  in  La  Revue  hebdoma- 
daire,  Aug.,  1913,  pp.  522-531 ;  Ulens,  in  La  Revue  sociale  catholique, 
vol.  17,  pp.  376-377. 

1048  Weill,  Histoire  du  mouvem,ent  social  en  France,  p.  394;  Blondel, 
in  Le  Monde  economique,  June  7, 1913;  Turmann,  op.  cit.,  p.  329;  Calippe, 
in  La  Revue  hebdomadaire,  Aug.,  1907,  pp.  632-644;  Albaret,  in  La 
Revue  sociale  catholique,  vol.  16,  pp.  1-20. 

1049  Quoted  by  Lamy,  in  Le  Correspondant,  vol.  236,  p.  631. 

1050  The  Comptes-rendus  of  the  Semaines  sociales  give  the  number 
of  registered  attendants,  in  addition  to  whom  there  are  always  a  large 
number    who    attend    the    lectures    without    formally    registering.     Cf. 
Boissard  in  La  Revue  hebdomadaire,  Aug.,  1913;  Danset,  in  Le  frfouve- 
ment  social,  July  15,  1914;  Riviere,  in  La  Reforme  sociale,  vol.  66,  pp. 
467-476. 

1051  Calippe,  in  La  Revue  hebdomadaire,  Aug.,  1907,  pp.  632-644. 

1052  fitienne   Lamy,    "  A   propos   des   Semaines   sociales ;    Socialistes 
et  Catholiques  "   (Correspondant,  Aug.  25,  1909,  vol.  236,  pp.  625-653). 

1053  Article  by   Eugene   Rostand   on   "  The   Young   Social   Catholics 
and  the  '  Semaine  sociale '  of  Bordeaux,"  originally  published  in  the 
Journal  des  Debats,  reprinted  in  La  Reforme  sociale,  1909,  vol.  58,  pp. 
606-612.     It  should  be  noted  that  La  Reforme  sociale  is  hostile  only  to 
the  extremist  tendencies  exhibited  in  the  Semaine  sociale,  not  to  the 
Semaines  themselves.    In  fact,  the  school  of  which  this  review  serves 
as  organ  is  obviously  friendly  to  the  Semaines.    Cf.  Andre  Roche  on 
"  Semaine    sociale    d'Orleans,"    in   Reforme   sociale,    1905,   vol.    50,   pp. 
585-588,  and  Louis  Riviere  on  "  La  Semaine  sociale  de  Versailles,"  in 
Reforme  sociale,  1913,  vol.  66,  p.  467,  et  seq. 

1054  pr    Veuillot,  Action  social  des  jeunes:   Association  Catholique 
de  la  Jeunesse  Franqaise  (Yellow  Brochure  No.  29  of  the  Action  popu- 
laire  series),  pp.  3-4. 

1055  Jbid.,  pp.  5-6,  10,  31 ;  Annuaire  de  I' Action  Liberale  Populaire 
1904-1905,  p.  324. 

lose  idem,  pp.  9-12,  17-21,  31-32 ;  Annuaire  de  I' A.  L.  P.,  p.  323. 

1057  Article  by  Alexandre  Souriac  on  the  social  ideas  of  the  A.  C. 
J.  F.,  in  a  symposium  on  "The  Social  Ideas  of  the  Contemporary 
Youth,"  in  La  Reforme  sociale,  1913,  vol.  65,  pp.  513-541. 

loss  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  Combats  d'hier  et  d'aujourd'hui,  vol.  i, 
p.  408. 

1059  Cf.  for  example  his  letter  to  the  convention  of  1903,  op.  cit.,  pp. 
407-438,  and  his  speech  on  "The  Social  Duty  of  the  Catholic  Young 
Men's  Association  "  at  a  convention  at  Besangon,  ibid.,  439-475- 

loeo  £y  Souriac's  article  on  "  Les  Idees  sociales  de  la  Jeunesse  con- 
temporaine"  (La  Reforme  sociale,  1913,  pp.  513-541)  ;  G.  Piot,  op.  cit.; 
U Action  sociale  dans  I' A.  C.  J.  F.;  Zamanski's  report  to  the  Bordeaux 


APPENDIX  465 

convention  of   1907    (Association  catholique,  vol.  63,  p.   189,  et  seq.). 

1061  pr.  Veuillot,  op.  cit.,  p.  27. 

1062  Semaine  sociale  of  Saint-Etienne,  Compte-rendu,  p.  267,  et  seq., 
222,  et  seq.;  of  Limoges,  Compte-rendu,  p.  137,  et  seq.;  of  Versailles, 
Compte-rendu,  p.  291,  et  seq. 

1063  Semaine  sociale  of  Rouen,  Compte-rendu,  p.  245,  et  seq.;  of  Saint- 
Etienne,   Compte-rendu,  p.   515,   et  seq.;   of   Limoges,   Compte-rendu, 
p.  129,  et  seq.;  of  Versailles,  Compte-rendu,  p.  423,  ef  j^g. 

1064  Cf.  Action  liberate  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  congres  general 
.  .  .  1904,  p.  148;  Compte-rendu  du  2e  congres  general  .  .  .  1905,  p.  126; 
Compte-rendu  du  5°  congres  general  .  .  .  1908,  p.  49. 

ices  Qf  Action  liberale  populaire,  Compte-rendu  du  3"  congres  gen- 
eral .  .  .  1906,  pp.  40,  54;  Compte-rendu  du  4'  congres  general  .  .  . 
1907,  p.  64. 

loee  Count  Albert  de  Mun,  Combats  d'hier  et  d'aujourd'hui,  vol.  i, 
p.  438  (letter  to  the  convention  of  the  A.  C.  J.  F.  at  Chalon-sur-Saone, 
May  9,  1903). 

1067  pjou,  Questions  religieuses  et  sociales,  pp.  135-145 ;  cf.  Annuaire 
de  I' Action  liberale  populaire  .  .  .  1904-1905,  pp.  54-62,  and  Fr.  Veuillot, 
op.  cit.,  p.  27. 

1068  Cf.  supra,  pp.  58-62. 

1069  cf.  supra,  pp.  140-156. 

1070  La  Rejorme  sociale,  1914,  vol.  67,  p.  I,  et  seq. 

1071  Ibid. 

1072  La  Re  forme  Sociale:  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  d'Sconomie  Sociale 
et  des  Unions  de  la  Paix  Sociale  fondees  par  P. — F.  Le  Play,  pub- 
lished twice  monthly,  at  Paris.     The  editorial  committee,  in  1914,  com- 
prised  Paul  Nourrisson,  F.   Lepelletier,  Louis   Riviere,  Herbert-Valle- 
roux,  Maurice  Defourmantelle,  F.  Charpin  (secretary). 

1073  The  article  here  summarized  is  part  of  a  symposium  on  "  The 
Social  Ideas  of  the  Contemporary  Youth,"  in  La  Reforme  sociale,  1913, 
vol.  65,,  pp.  5I3-54I- 

1074  La  Reforme  Sociale,  1905,  vol.  49,  pp.  326-327,  article  by  A.  D. 
(presumably  Alexis  Delaire,  secretary-general  of  the  Society  of  Social 
Economy)    on   "  Le   Programme  de   la   Paix   Sociale   et   les   elections 
prochaines." 

1075  £j  for  example,  La  Reforme  sociale,  1909,  vol.  57,  p.  676,  review- 
ing the  Manuel  social  pratique   published  by  the   A.   P.     Among  the 
pamphlets  published  by  the  A.  P.  and  written  by  conspicuous  members 
of  the  "  Social  Reform  "  group,  may  be  mentioned :   No.   13    (Etienne 
Martin-Saint-Leon,    La   Mutualite},    No.    257    (idem,    Une    crise    eco- 
nomique:  La  Vie  chere"),  No.  51   (A.  Delaire,  Le  Play  et  son  Scole), 
No.   101    (G.   Blondel,  La  Situation  economique  et  sociale  des  £tats- 
Unis},   No.   164   (idem,  Les  Transformations  de  I'Allemagne   contem- 
poraine),   No.   28    (Pierre   du  Maroussem,   Qu'est-ce  que   la   Question 
ouvriere).  No.  49  (idem,  Qu'est-ce  que  la  Question  sociale),  No.  152 
(M.  Dufourmantelle,  Le  credit  populaire). 

1076  Cf.  supra,  pp.  345-346. 

1077  La  Reforme  sociale,  1910,  vol.  59,  p.  598. 


466  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

1078  Idem,  1909,  vol.  57,  pp.  296-308. 

1079  La  Reforme  sociale,  1900,  vol.  40,  pp.  641-659. 

1080  Charles  Maurras  and  Lucien  Moreau,  on  "  L' Action  Franchise," 
an   article   in    Le   Correspondant,   June    10,    1908,    pp.   959-981 ;    Leon 
Jacques,  Les  Partis  politiques  sous  la  IIP  Republique,  p.  176;  R.  L. 
Buell,  Contemporary  French  Politics  (N.  Y.,  1920),  pp.  8-18. 

1081  Maurras  and  Moreau,  loc.  cit. 

1082  Ibid. 

loss  Jacques,  op.  cit.,  p.  183. 

ios4£tienne  Lamy,  "  L'Action  Franchise  et  le  Correspondant,"  in 
Le  Correspondant,  Dec.  10,  1907,  pp.  984-1005. 

loss  Quoted  by  Jacques,  op.  cit.,  p.  185. 

1086  £f  Guy-Grand's  interesting  discussion  of  the  possibility  of  alli- 
ance between  the  Action  Franqaise  and  the  C.  G.  T.,  in  his  book,  Le 
Proces  de  la  Democratic  (Paris,  1911),  pp.  10-11,  et  passim. 

IOST  Weill,  Histoire  du  mouvement  social  en  France,  p.  395,  et  seq.; 
fible,  Les  Scales  catholiques  d'economie,  p.  222,  et  seq. 

loss  Weill,  op.  cit.,  pp.  398-399 ;  fible,  op.  cit.,  pp.  222-225 ;  Barbier, 
Progres  du  liberalisme,  p.  88,  et  seq. 

1089  Weill,  op.  cit.,  p.  395. 

1090  Cf.  supra,  p.  208. 

1091  Barbier,  op.  cit.,  p.  93.    Abbe  Lemire  was  secretary-general. 

1092  Turmann,  Le  Developpement  du  catholicisme  social,  p.  193. 

1093  Cf.  supra,  pp.  347-348. 

1094  Extracts  from  Abbe  Naudet's  speeches,  quoted  by  Barbier,  op. 
cit.,  p.  46,  from  Le  Bien  du  Peuple,  1892-1894. 

1095  Abbe  Naudet,  La  Democratic  et  les  Democrates  chrctiens  (Paris, 
1900) ,  passim,  especially  p.  76,  et  seq. 

1096  Fesch,  Annee  sociale  en  France  et  a  I'etranger,  1898  (Paris,  1899), 
pp.  75-80.  ^ 

1097  Abbe   Pierre   Dabry,   Les   Catholiques  republicans,   Histoire   et 
souvenirs,  1800-1903  (Paris,  1905),  especially  pp.  694-695. 

1098  Ibid.,  and  La  Vie  catholique,  Nov.  2.  1907. 

1099  Naudet,  Pourquoi  les  catholiques  ont  perdu  la  bataille. 

1100  Another  Christian  Democratic  priest  in  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
Abbe  Gayraud,  joined  the  Popular  Liberal  Party.     Abbes  Gayraud  and 
Lemire  may  exemplify  the  two  tendencies  of  the  Christian  Democrats, 
the  first  towards  reconciliation  with  the   Social   Catholics,  the  second 
towards  a  form  of  radicalism  incompatible  with  Social  Catholicism. 

1101  Abbe  Emmanuel  Barbier,  Les  Democrates  Chretiens  et  le  mod- 
ernisme:  histoire  documentaire  (Paris  and  Nancy,  1908),  passim. 

1102  Article   reproduced  in  Barbier,  Les  Democrates  chretiens  et   le 
modernisme,  p.  367,  et  seq. 

1103  A  eta  sanctae  sedis,  vol.  xli,  p.  141. 

1104  Article  by  Bazire.  in  L'Univers,  Aug.  29,  1907. 

1105  Marc  Sangnier.  L'Histoire  et  les  idees  du  Sillon:  idem,  Le  plus 
firand  Sillon:  "Cinq  annees  d'action,"  in  Le  Sillon  for  March  TO,  1007; 
Jacques,  Les  Partis  politiques,  p.  347 ;  Weill,  Histoire  du  catholicisme 
liberal,  p.  241 ;  Fesch,  Annee  sociale,  1907,  pp.  183-196. 


APPENDIX  467 

HOG  jn  addition  to  the  works  already  cited,  see  Marc  Sangnier,  Le 
Sillon,  esprit  et  methodes;  Louis  Cousin,  Vie  et  doctrine  du  Sillon; 
Barbier,  Le s  Idees  du  Sillon;  idem,  Les  Erreurs  du  Sillon;  idem,  La 
Decadence  du  Sillon;  Ch.  Maurras,  Le  Dilemme  de  Marc  Sangnier. 

1107  Quoted  by  Weill,  loc  cit. 

HOB  Works  cited  above. 

"os  Ibid. 

1112  Weill,  op.  cit.,  p.  241. 

1113  Barbier,  Progres  du  liberalisme  catholique,  p.  45. 

1114  R.  de  Marans,  "  Un  nouvel  etat  d'esprit  retrograde,"  in  L'Amc 
latine,  July,  1904,  quoted  by  fible,  op.cit.,  pp.  233-234. 

1115  Pius  X,  letter  to  the  French  Archbishops  and  Bishops,  August  25, 
1910,  in  Rome,  Sept.  3,  1910,  pp.  116-120,  Sept.  10,  pp.  129-132. 

1116  Marc  Sangnier,  Discours  1910-1913  (Paris,  1913),  passim. 

1117  Ibid.,  p.  403,  et  seq.,  451,  et  seq. 

1118  Hubert  Lagardelle  in  Le  Devenir  social,  1898,  p.  81. 

1119  A  convention  or  congress  for  the  study  of  social  questions.     Cf. 
supra,  pp.  339-346. 

1120  Le  Mouvement  socialiste,  Sept.-Oct.,   1912,  p.   199,   et  seq.    La- 
gardelle in  concluding  his  article  finds  comfort  in  the  reflection  that 
"  Socialism,  and  I  speak  of   syndicalist   Socialism,   not  of   democratic 
Socialism,  has  nothing  to  fear  from  the  Social  Catholics.     It  can  only 
profit  by  their  critique  of  capitalism  and  by  their  exaltation  of  trade- 
union  organization.     Social   Catholicism  is   working  for   syndicalism." 

1121  Le  Rap  pel,  June  5,  1912. 

1122  La  Revolution  Syndicaliste  convoyee  par  les  "  Catholiques  So- 
ciaux"  (Paris,  1913). 

H23  Defoyere,  op.  cit.,  pp.  92-93.    Italics  are  as  in  original. 
1124  Ibid.,  pp.  09-100,  107. 

H25  Fidao-Justiniani,  "  Les  Courants  d'idees,"  Le  Mouvement  social, 
Feb.,  1912,  pp.  113-126;  April,  1912,  pp.  317-333- 

1126  Max  Turmann,  Le  Developpement  du  catholicisme  social  depuis 
I'encyclique   "  Rcrum   Novarum"   (15  mai   1891);   idees   directrices   et 
caracteres  generaux:  deuxieme  edition  revue  et  augmentee  d'une  etude 
sur  le  mouvement  social  catholique  depuis  1900  (Paris,  1909),  p.  iii  of 
Preface  to  First  Edition. 

1127  Joseph  Zamanski   (joint  editor  of  Le  Mouvement  social},  article 
on  "  La  Politique  sociale,"  in  Le  Mouvement  social,  1913,  vol.  76,  p.  336, 
et  seq. 

1128  Moniteur  universel,  Feb.  17,  1791,  pp.  194-196,  and  June  15,  1791, 
p.  688 ;  Office  du  travail,  Les  Associations  professionnelles  ouvrieret 
(Paris,  1899),  vol.  i,  pp.  6-19. 

1129  Cf.  supra,  pp.  19-24. 

1130  Cf.  supra,  pp.  101-105. 

1131  M.  fible,  Les  £coles  catholiques  d'economie  politique  et  sociale 
en  France  (Paris,  1905),  ch.  v;  Manuel  social  pratique  (Rheims,  1910), 
pp.  150-171 ;  Le  Mouvement  social,  vol.  77,  pp.  372-377. 

1132  Proposition   de   loi   sur  1'organisation   professionnelle,   presentee 
par  MM.  Leonce  de  Castelnau,  Piou,  Ollivier,  le  comte  Albert  de  Mun, 


468  THE  SOCIAL  CATHOLIC  MOVEMENT 

Lerolle,  Chambre  des  deputes,  1906,  Documents,  pp.  768-771.  Cf.  fible, 
loc.  cit.;  Martin  Saint-Leon,  Histoire  des  corporations  de  metiers 
(Paris,  1897),  pp.  620-659. 

1133  Tne   idea  of   professional   or   functional   representation   is   sug- 
gested but  not  formally  included  in  the  Bill  of  1906.    Cf.  Max  Tur- 
mann,  Le  Developpement  du  catholicisme  social  (Paris,  1909),  pp.  93, 
290-292;   La  Tour  du   Pin,   Vers  un  ordre  social  chretien   (2nd  ed., 
Paris),   passim;   articles   by   Urbain   Guerin   and   Eugene   Duthoit   in 
L' Association  catholique,  January,  1891,  p.  34,  et  seq.,  and  July,  1900, 
pp.  4-21.    The  article  by  Duthoit  is  particularly  interesting. 

1134  Max  Turmann,  article  in  Le  Correspondant,  July  10,  1919,  pp. 

i-3i. 

1135  Tne  Constitution  of  the  German  Republic,  translated  by  W.  B. 
Munro  and  A.  N.  Holcombe,  published  by  World  Peace  Foundation, 
Boston,  1919. 

use  The  literature  of  Guild  Socialism  is  rapidly  becoming  voluminous. 
I  have  based  my  brief  discussion  of  the  subject  upon  The  Guildsman 
(monthly,  edited  by  G.  D.  H.  and  Margaret  Cole,  London)  ;  articles  in 
The  New  Age;  G.  D.  H.  Cole,  The  World  of  Labour  (London,  1920, 
first  published,  1913)  ;  Self-Government  in  Industry  (London,  1920,  first 
published,  1917)  ;  Labour  in  the  Commonwealth  (London,  1920)  ;  Chaos 
and  Order  in  Industry  (London,  1920)  ;  Social  Theory  (London,  1920)  ; 
S.  G.  Hobson,  National  Guilds  (London,  1919)  ;  Guild  Principles  in 
War  and  Peace  (second  edition,  London,  1919)  ;  National  Guilds  and 
the  State  (London,  1920)  ;  A.  J.  Penty,  Restoration  of  the  Guild  Sys- 
tem (London,  1006)  ;  Old  Worlds  for  New  (London,  1917)  ;  M.  B. 
Rickett  and  C.  E.  Bechhofer,  The  Meaning  of  National  Guilds  (Lon- 
don, 1918). 


INDEX 


Accidents,  workingmen's  compen- 
sation for,  106,  107,  108,  109,  116, 
163-164,  204,  240. 

Action     Franchise,     175,    361-365, 

384- 

Action  Liberate  Populaire,  (Popu- 
lar Liberal  Party),  preface,  ch. 
ix,  221,  35I-352,  393. 

Action   Populaire,   320-339. 

Annee  Sociale  Internationale,  324- 
326. 

Antisemitism,  206-211. 

Antoine,  Abbe,  343,  344. 

Aquinas,  122,  157,  158,  161. 

Arbitration  and  conciliation,  109, 
163,  164,  240,  243,  245,  253. 

Association  Catholique,  155,  251, 
253,  256,  319-321,  328. 

Association  Catholique  de  la  Jeu- 
nesse  Franchise,  347-352. 

Associations  Law,  220,  281-282, 
283. 

Austria,  Social  Catholic  Move- 
ment in,  129-132. 

Avenir,   17,  25,  32. 

Bagshawe,   Mgr.   E.   G.,   136. 

Barbier,  Abbe  Emmanuel,  303- 
305. 

Bastiat,  12. 

Baudeau,  10. 

Bazire,  351,  373-374- 

Bechaux,  355. 

Belgium,  Social  Catholic  Move- 
ment in,  I34-I35- 

Bishops'  Program,  preface. 

Blanc,  Louis,  53-54,  55,  96. 

Blanc  Saint-Bonnet,  56. 

Bloc,  ch.  viii,  242,  291. 

Blondel,  343,  355. 

Boissard,  344. 

Bolshevism,  384. 


469 


Bonald,  14,  29. 
Bordas-Demoulin,  57,  58. 
Boulanger  affair,  167,  178. 
Bourgeois,  J.,  57,  58. 
Bourgeois,  Leon,  202,  205. 
Brisson,  214. 
Brunetiere,  348. 
Brunhes,  Jean,  344. 
Buchez,  16. 

Cabet,  55. 

Caillaux,  217. 

Calippe,  343,  344,  369,  374. 

Casimir-Perier,    194-195,    197,    199, 

200. 
Chambord,  Henri,  count  of,  70-74, 

97-98- 

Charles  X,  29. 
Chateaubriand,  14-15,  30. 
Chesnelong,  169,   171,  211. 
Child-labor,  8-9,   19-20,  22,  91-92, 

94,   107,   108,   no,   in,   116,   125, 

126,  259. 
Christian  Democrats,  168,  174-175, 

208,  210,   211,  301-302,   365-374, 

384- 

Civil  service,  273-274. 
Clemenceau,  178,  267. 
Clercq,  V.  de,  256. 
Clericalism,  209,  289,  291. 
Cochin,    Augustin,   56-57. 
Cochin,  Henry,  229. 
Collective  bargaining,  243,  259. 
Combes,  267. 
Commune,  77-79,  81. 
Confederation  generale  du  travail, 

preface,  see  also  Syndicalism. 
Constitution,  amendment  of,  270. 
Consumers  League,  316. 
Cooperation,  253,  378. 
Corbiere,  66-67. 
Counter-Revolution,    86-87. 


470 


INDEX 


Coux,   Charles   de,   24-25,   31,  35, 

52. 

Croi,  19. 
Croix,  209,  220. 

Dabry,  168,  174,  302-303,  366,  370, 

373- 

Dansette,  265. 
Daudet,  Leon,  361. 
Decentralization,  244,  274-278,  358. 
Decurtins,  132,  133-134,  136. 
Denis,  Theodore,  287-288. 
Deroulede,  219. 
Desbuquois,  328,  33O-339,  343- 
Deslandres,  344. 
Dreyfus    affair,    208-211,    214-215, 

219. 

D  riant,   297,   300. 
Drumont,  206-207,  208,  366. 
Dufaure,  92-93. 
Dunoyer,  12-13. 
Dupanloup,  40-41. 
Du  Pont  de  Nemours,  9,  10. 
Dupuy,  191,  194,  201,  215. 
Duthoit,  329,  344. 

Eight-hour   day,    164. 

Elections,  of  1893,  191-192;  of 
1898,  211-214;  °f  I9°2,  240-242; 
of  1906,  305;  of  1910,  306;  of 
1914,  306,  307;  of  1919,  preface, 
263-264,  298,  306,  appendix 
(note  4). 

Electoral    practices,    263-264. 

Employers,    federations   of,   234. 

England,  Social  Catholic  Move- 
ment in,  135-136. 

Ere  Nouvelle,  17,  34~35,  37,  39, 
41. 

Falloux  law,  30-40. 

Fava,   169,   171. 

Fesch,  168,  174,  368-369. 

Fidao-Justiniani,  388. 

Fonsegrive,  348,  373. 

Fourier,  55. 

Freyssinous,  29. 

Freppel,   154-156,   168,  347. 

Fribourg,  Union  of,  139,  158. 


Gailhard-Bancel,  246,  250,  256,  310. 

Gaillard,  229. 

Gallicanism,  175,  appendix   (notes 

144  and   659). 
Gambetta,  88,  89. 
Gamier,  168,   174,  366. 
Gayraud,   168,    174,  208,   229,   366, 

367. 

Gerbet,    16-17,   52. 

Germany,  Social  Catholic  Move- 
ment in,  121-129. 

Gibbons,   137. 

Goyau,  348,  369,  374. 

Grandmaison,  246. 

Guerin,  Urbain,  343. 

Guesde,  204. 

Guide  social,  323-324. 

Guild  Socialism,  384,  390-399. 

Guilds,  19,  22,  28,  59-60,  64-65,  70- 
73,  75,  96-107,  iio-in,  113-117, 
118-120,  127,  144-145,  148,  162, 
173,  252,  254,  257-259,  317,  319, 
334-335,  339,  368,  384,  39O-399- 

Guyot,  189,  335. 

Harmel,  J.  J.,  113. 

Harmel,   Leon,   117-120,    159,    174- 

175,  319,  175,  319,  347-348,  366. 
Haussonville,  188. 
Health    insurance,    109,    116;    see 

also  Insurance,  social. 
Hertling,  128-129. 
Hitze,  126-128,  129,  340. 
Hubert- Valleroux,  355,  359-360. 
Huet,  57-58,   134- 
Hugo,  45. 

Industrial  Revolution,  I ;  in 
France,  6-9. 

Inheritance  and  inheritance  taxes, 
134,  218,  240,  357. 

Insurance,  social,  112,  163,  253, 
2S9,  394;  see  also  Health  In- 
surance, Accidents,  Pensions. 

International  labor  legislation,  23, 
106,  112,  204,  253,  311. 

Italy,  136. 

Jacques,  235-236. 


INDEX 


471 


Jaluzot,  229. 

Jaures,  183,  184-185,  190,  191,  192, 

193.  194.  197-198,  213,  291. 
Jay,  Raoul,  344,  389. 
Justice-Equality   Office,   209,  211. 

Keller,  81,  82,  91-92,  94-97,  169. 
Ketteler,    121-125,    138,    146,    147, 

148. 
Knights  of  Labor,  137. 

Labor  exchange  of  Paris,  191,  202. 
Labor     legislation,     international, 

23,  106,  112,  204,  253,  311. 
Lacordaire,    17-18,    33,   34~36,   41, 

52,  318. 

Lafargue,  179-180,  183,  190. 
Lagardelle,  386,  388. 
Laissez-faire,  10,  18,  224;  see  also 

Liberalism,  economic. 
Lamartine,  36,  39,  43. 
Lamennais,  31-33. 
Lamy,  344,  345,  363. 
Land,  small  holdings  of,  165. 
Langenieux,   159. 
Lapeyre,  207. 
Laroche-Joubert,  92-93. 
La  Tour  du  Pin,  80,  81,  82,   141, 

147-149,  207,  219,  225,  3i9,  341, 

and  Appendix    (note  669). 
Lavigerie,  167-168. 
Lemire,  168,  343,  348,  366,  371,  389. 
Leo  XIII,  139,  156,  157-166,   170- 

172,  174,  317,  367. 
Le  Play,  58-62,  80,  309,  318,  3 19, 

354;  followers  of,  150,  354~36i. 
Lerolle,  Jean,  256,  351,  395. 
Leroux,  55. 
Leroy,  Abbe,  321-322. 
L'Estourbeillon,  288. 
Le  Trosne,  10. 
Liberal    Catholics,   31-33,   52,   225, 

227. 
Liberalism,    economic,    n,    13,    18, 

56,  57,  64,  74,  102,  142,  159,  224- 

225,  316  318,  332-333,  335,  384- 
Liberty,  religious,  279-285. 
Lichtenstein,  129,  :36. 


Liege,   social  work  congresses  at, 

153- 

Lorin,  320,  341,  389. 
Louis  XVIII,  29. 
Louis     Napoleon,     see     Napoleon 

III. 

Louis  Philippe,  32. 
Lueger,  131-132. 

Maignen,  82. 

Maistre,  Joseph  de,  29. 

Manning,  cardinal,  135-136,  137. 

Maret,  34~35- 

Martin    Saint-Leon,    60,    344. 

Marx,  55. 

Maurras,  361,  363. 

Maze-Sencier,  236,  256. 

M.eline,  203-204,  209,  214. 

Melun,  Armand  de,  18-19,  40,  42- 
51,  52. 

Mercier  de  la  Riviere,   10. 

Mermillod,  132-133,  138,  139,  158. 

Metz-Noblat,    65-66. 

Meyer,  Rudolph,  130,  138. 

Millerand,  183-184,  190,  192,  198, 
199,  205,  216,  217-218,  240,  291, 
298,  311- 

Millevoye,  300. 

Mirabeau,  9. 

Modernism,  371-374. 

Monastic  orders,  220,  281-282,  283. 

Montalembert,  Charles  de,  20,  33- 
34,  39,  40,  41,  45,  52,  56. 

Moufang,  125-126,  129. 

Mouvement  Social,  327-329. 

Mun,  Albert  de,  80-91,  97-113, 
117-118,  120,  136,  146,  149,  150, 
155,  163-166,  169,  170,  172-174, 
179,  180-181,  184-186,  190,  192, 
198-200,  204,  208,  220,  225,  ^26, 
228,  229,  240,  256,  279,  281,  286, 
289-290,  293,  295,  297,  319,  341, 
347,  348,  349,  351,  389-300,  392. 

Mutual  aid,  204. 

Nationalists,  219,  229,  241. 
Napoleon  III,  30-42,  50-51,  67-69. 
Naudet,  168,  3o2,  366,  368,  371,  373. 
Nitti,    159,   preface. 


472 


INDEX 


Ozanam,  25-27,  34,  35,  41,  52,  318- 
319- 

Paix  Sociale,  Unions  de,  355-356. 

Paris,  count  of,  70. 

Passy,  Frederic,   189. 

Passy,  Hippolyte,  67. 

Passy,  Louis,  229. 

Patriotic  League,  233. 

Patriotism,  295-298. 

Patronage,  61. 

Pensions,  Workingmen's,  107,  108, 
109,  163-164,  204,  218,  243,  245, 
248,  287;  see  also  Insurance, 
social. 

Perin,  58,  62,  134,  141,  147,  153. 

Physiocrats,  o-n. 

Piou,  Jacques,  166,  169,  186,  187, 
1 88,  192,  220,  226-227,  237-240, 
242,  246-251,  260-262,  266,  273, 
274,  279-282,  285-286,  289,  292- 
296,  301-303,  352,  356,  392. 

Pius  X,  373,  377-38i. 

Popular  Liberal  Party,  preface, 
ch.  ix,  221,  351-352,  393. 

President,  election  and  powers  of, 
272-273. 

Progressists,  210,  212,  216,  220, 
225,  228-229,  241. 

Proudhon,   55. 

Quesnay,  9. 

Ralliement,   166-193. 

Rallies,  187,  188,  189,  190-192,  195, 

197-198,   199-200,   201,   202,   203, 

209-214,  220-22 i,   225,   228. 
Referendum,   244,   278-279. 
Reforme  Sociale,  150,  152,  356. 
Reille,   Amedee,  228. 
Representation,  functional,  72,  101, 

128,  173,  245,  268-269,  394-395- 
Representation,    proportional,   243, 

264-267. 
Republican    Right,    187,    189,    191, 

200,  229. 
Rerum    Novarum,    159-165,    178- 

I8o. 


Reunions  franchises  des  revues 
catholiques  sociales,  320. 

Revolution   of    1830,  3i-32. 

Revolution  of  1848,  34~39,  53-55- 

Revue  catholique  des  institutions 
et  du  droit,  155. 

Richard,  cardinal,   169,  347. 

Roquefeuil,  347. 

Rutten,  343,  344. 


Saint-Mande  Program,  205. 

Saint- Simon,  26,  54-55. 

Sangnier,   381-382. 

Sanitation,    164. 

Savatier,  Henri,  251,  348. 

Say,  J.  B.,   11-12. 

Say,  Leon,  189,  200. 

Schneider,  Eugene,  229. 

Seilhac,  329. 

Semaines  Sociales,  320,  330-346. 

Separation  of  Church  and  State, 
2&>-28i,  287-288. 

Sertillanges,  343,  344. 

Sillon,  375-38i,  384- 

Simon,  Jules,  67-68,  92. 

Sismondi,  24. 

Six,  Abbe,  366. 

Social  Catholic  Study  Union,  320. 

Socialism  and  Socialists,  4,  54-56, 
64,  77-79,  127,  157-158,  160,  177- 
186,  190,  192-193,  194,  108-200, 
205-206,  217,  232,  247-248,  289- 
294,  298,  332-333,  335-356,  384. 

Social  Politics,  5. 

Social  Reform  School,  354-361, 
384. 

Societe  d'ficonomie  Sociale,  355- 
356. 

Souriac,  271,  349,  351. 

Spain,  Social  Catholic  Movement 
in,  136. 

Speculation,  laws  against,  253,  255, 

259- 

Spuller,   182,   195-197. 
Sunday  holiday,  107,  108,  no,  125, 

126,  165,  243,  253,  259. 
Supreme  Court,  244,  245,  264,  271- 

272. 


INDEX 


473 


Switzerland,        Social        Catholic 

Movement  in,  132-134. 
Syllabus  of  Errors,  42. 
Syndicalism,   preface,  4,  334,  365, 

384,    387,    388,   Appendix    (note 

2). 

Thiers,  45,  46,  49-50,  81. 

Tocqueville,  31. 

Trade  boards,  218,  240. 

Trade-unionism,  3,  59,  73,  78,  99- 
105,  162-163,  200,  243,  244,  249, 
250,  252,  254,  257-258,  309,  334- 
335,  36o,  367,  368,  369,  374,  391- 
392. 

Turgot,  10,  79,  105. 

Turmann,  343,  366,  369,  374,  388. 

Unemployment,  164. 

Union    de    la    France   Chretienne, 

169,  170,  171. 

Unions   de  Paix   Sociale,  355-356. 
Union  of  Reviews,  253,  255. 
Union     des     Travailleurs     Libres, 

234- 

Veuillot,  Louis,  17,  30,  34,  36,  40. 
Villeneuve-Bargemont,     8,     19-24, 
52,  318,  392. 


Villerme,  7. 
Vogelsang,  130. 
Volksverein,  321. 
Voting,  compulsory,  263. 

Wages,  7,  8,  n,  12,  22-23,  26,  28, 

75,   "o,   126,   135,   163,  245,  253, 

259,  369- 

Waldeck-Rousseau,  216-220,  227. 
Welfare  Societies,  Union  of,  80. 
Whitley  Plan,  preface. 
Women,  employment  of,  7,  8,  59, 

92,   94,    107,    108,    1 10,    125,    126, 

165,  253,  259- 
Working  day,  length  of,  8,  19-20, 

23,  91-92,  94,  96,   108,   no,   in, 

112,  125,  135,  151,  164,  218,  244, 

253,  259,  395. 
Workingmen's    Clubs,    82-87,    118, 

141,  155,  172,  319,  329,  347,  349- 

Young  Men's  Catholic  Associa- 
tion, 211,  347-352. 

Young  Republic,  League  of  the, 
381-382. 

Zamanski,  256,  328,  343,  35O-35I, 
371,  388-389. 


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